Dar es Salaam. Opening millions of bank accounts and expanding access to digital financial services are no longer enough to achieve meaningful financial inclusion, a newly published global study says.
The next challenge for governments is ensuring that people can use those financial services to withstand economic shocks, recover from crises and build long-term financial resilience.
This comes at a time when data shows financial inclusion in Tanzania has soared, with formal financial access reaching 89 percent and usage at 76 percent.
This growth is largely driven by a multi-operator mobile money ecosystem (like M-Pesa, Airtel Money, and Tigo Pesa). Despite this success, roughly 6.4 million adults remain financially excluded due to rural proximity, lack of national IDs, and low mobile ownership
That is the key message of “Financial Inclusion and Economic Resilience: A Bibliometric Analysis of Emerging Trends, Global Patterns and Future Research Directions,” published in the African Journal of Business Management by researchers Ali Alharthi, Amna Ali, Sultan Rashid Aljahdali and Khaled Alkhulaifi.
Drawing on an analysis of 506 scientific publications produced between 2002 and June 2025, the researchers conclude that financial inclusion has entered a new phase.
Rather than concentrating solely on expanding access to banking services, governments should ensure financial systems enable households and businesses to weather economic uncertainty, whether caused by inflation, pandemics, climate change or financial crises.
“Our analysis offers a detailed bibliometric mapping of financial inclusion and economic resilience research,” the researchers write, noting that the field has evolved “from a niche topic into a mature, multidisciplinary domain” that increasingly views financial inclusion as “a cornerstone of sustainable development and economic resilience.”
Their findings suggest that simply increasing the number of people using banks or mobile money services no longer provides a sufficient measure of success.
Instead, governments should ask whether citizens have savings to cushion income losses, affordable credit to keep businesses operating during difficult periods, insurance that protects livelihoods and financial knowledge that enables informed decisions when crises strike.
The study argues that financial inclusion should ultimately strengthen people’s ability to absorb shocks rather than merely connect them to financial institutions.
For Tanzania, where mobile money has transformed financial access and the government continues promoting a digital economy, the findings point to a broader policy agenda.
Expanding digital payments remains important, but equally important is ensuring that financial services improve the resilience of families, farmers, entrepreneurs and small businesses during periods of economic stress.
The researchers observe that this shift became particularly evident after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Their analysis shows a sharp increase in financial inclusion research after 2019, reflecting growing global recognition that inclusive financial systems helped many households and businesses survive one of the biggest economic disruptions in modern history. The study therefore recommends that governments redesign financial inclusion policies with resilience as a central objective.
Among the priorities is establishing regulatory frameworks specifically designed for digital financial ecosystems.
As digital finance becomes increasingly important, the researchers warn that cybercrime, fraud and operational failures could threaten financial stability if regulations fail to keep pace with technological innovation.
“Policy makers should establish regulatory frameworks specifically tailored to digital financial ecosystems in order to mitigate systemic risks including cyber threats, fraud and operational disruptions,” the study recommends.
Beyond regulation, the researchers urge governments to develop monitoring systems capable of assessing whether financial inclusion programmes genuinely improve resilience instead of simply increasing financial access.
Such evaluations, they argue, would help policymakers understand whether financial services enable households to cope better with future economic shocks and whether businesses become more capable of surviving periods of uncertainty.
The study also calls for greater investment in research within developing countries.
Although financial inclusion literature has expanded significantly over the past two decades, the researchers note that many developing economies remain underrepresented, limiting the availability of locally relevant evidence for policymaking. They therefore recommend more empirical studies that reflect national contexts and inform financial inclusion strategies suited to local economic realities.
Another emerging trend identified by the study is the growing connection between financial inclusion and wider development issues.
Research increasingly links inclusive finance with climate resilience, digital innovation, renewable energy and sustainable development, reflecting recognition that resilient financial systems support broader economic transformation rather than banking alone.
The researchers caution, however, that financial inclusion should not be viewed as an automatic solution.
Without effective regulation, strong institutions and improved financial literacy, expanding digital finance could expose consumers to fraud, widen inequality or create new forms of vulnerability.
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