Digital Interoperability Platforms, Mobile Phones, Governance Quality and Financial Inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence of Synergies

This study complements the extant literature by empirically assessing how digital interoperability platforms influence financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa, especially when moderated by mobile phones usage and governance quality. The study uses data obtained from three sources, including: (i) Global Financial Inclusion Database 2017 (Global Findex 2017); (ii) Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP); (iii) World Development Indicators (WDI) and World Governance Indicators (WGI) of the World Bank. A multidimensional measure of financial inclusion and five digital interoperability dynamics (any, diversified, third-party, bilateral, and multilateral digital interoperability platforms) are used to provide empirical evidence based on multilevel model (MLM) regressions. Our analysis includes 33,194 individuals (15 years and above) located in 34 countries. The findings show that mobile phone usage, governance quality and all types of digital interoperability platforms, unconditionally promote financial inclusion. These findings are consistent across different methods and alternative weighting schemes used in generating the financial inclusion index. We also find that complementing three digital interoperability platforms (i.e., any, diversified and third-party) with the two moderating variables (i.e. mobile phone and governance quality) engenders positive synergy effects on financial inclusion. Policy implications are discussed.