Food security and financial inclusion in Africa: exploring the role of educational development

Ending severe hunger and improving nutrition are important sustainable development goals that preoccupy the minds of policymakers. This research assesses the impact of financial inclusion on food security and also examines the moderating impact of educational development in this relationship. The study adopts kilocalories per capita and the prevalence of undernourishment as indicators of food insecurity while financial inclusion is proxied by the number of bank accounts, bank branches, ATM users, total bank deposits and liquid liabilities. After adopting the GMM strategy to control for potential endogeneity in a panel of 38 African countries between 2000 and 2021, the findings indicate that financial inclusion has a significant positive effect on kilocalories per capita in Africa. After conducting a sensitivity analysis employing the prevalence of undernourishment as an indicator of food security, the result remains consistent, indicating that financial inclusion enhances food security in Africa. The findings further reveal that educational development plays a positive role in modulating the effects of financial inclusion on food security, as indicated by the positive synergistic effects of education enrolments. The results suggest that to raise per capita calorie intake and lower the incidence of undernourishment, banking services should be promoted through educational development.