Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa
Source: Global Findex
Financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa has grown steadily over the past decade, rising from 34% of adults owning a financial account in 2014 to 58% in 2024, according to the Global Findex Database 2025 . However, the region remains among the lowest in the world for account ownership. With over 40 countries, there is a wide variation in financial inclusion levels throughout the region. Kenya and Mauritius boast the highest rates of account ownership, at 90% and 89%, followed by South Africa and Ghana (both 81%). Other countries lag far behind, such as Niger (14% account ownership), Chad (20%) and Madagascar (24%).
Mobile money has served as a key driver of financial inclusion in the region, where 40% of adults had a mobile money account as of 2024, the highest level of all world regions. In addition, about half of adults (51%) have used digital payments, putting the region in the middle among world regions for digital payment usage.
Gender gap in financial inclusion
Source: Global Findex
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 52% of women had a financial account in 2024 compared to 64% of men. This gender gap of 12 percentage points is the second largest worldwide after the Middle East and North Africa region. Togo claims the highest gender gap of the region at 25 percentage points, while Nigeria, the region’s largest country, follows close behind at 22 percentage points. While both women and men have seen significant increases in account holding over the past decade, the gender gap has widened as men have outpaced women in opening accounts.
The story for digital payments is similar; while women’s usage of digital payments has increased significantly – by 21 percentage points over the past decade, men’s usage has risen even more, resulting in a growing gender gap of 11 percentage points in digital payment usage, up from 8 percentage points in 2014.
Closing the gender gap thus remains a priority for the region, as research shows that microcredit in Sub-Saharan Africa has a positive effect on women’s ability to earn, save, control household finances and increase their freedom of movement. To learn more about how the financial inclusion sector is working towards women’s economic empowerment, join FinEquity, a community of practice to empower women through financial inclusion, convened by CGAP.
Resilience
More than a quarter of adults (27%) in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced a natural disaster or severe weather event in the past three years. 18% lost income or were unable to work due to natural disasters, and 19% experienced damage to their home or livestock. The population in the region is among the most vulnerable in the world to climate shocks, facing droughts, floods, cyclones and other natural disasters with little to no safety net. When asked how long their household could cover expenses after losing its main income source, only 37% of the respondents said they could last for more than two months.
Access to a range of financial services can play a role in helping people build resilience to such shocks. For example, an experimental study in Ghana found that insurance reduced the rate of missed meals in farming households affected by climate shocks from 23 to 15%. To explore the link between access to financial services and climate resilience, refer to CGAP’s Impact Pathfinder, which synthesizes decades of research on this topic.
Source: Global Findex
Source: Global Findex
Knowledge Resources by Country
Explore the knowledge resources we have available on the following countries in Sub-Saharan Africa:
Learn about financial inclusion in other regions:
East Asia & Pacific | Europe & Central Asia | Latin America & the Caribbean | Middle East & North Africa | North America | South Asia | Global