The effect of financial inclusion on poverty reduction in Sub-Sahara Africa: Does threshold matter?

Abstract

This paper investigated the threshold effect of financial inclusion on poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using an annual dataset spanning 2010 to 2017, the Hansen’s estimation and Differenced generalized method of moments (GMM) methods were used to estimate the threshold level of financial inclusion that will reduce poverty and factors that influence financial inclusion respectively. The results showed that beyond a threshold level of 0.365, financial inclusion would lead to poverty reduction with money supply being positively significant towards poverty reduction in SSA. The results further indicated that domestic credit to the private sector positively affects financial inclusion. Development partners and governments in the sub-region should therefore implement policies that are aimed at providing an enabling environment for financial institutions to provide financial services that are readily available and affordable to the public in order to benefit from the desired poverty reduction effect of financial inclusion.

Keywords

• poverty
• financial inclusion
• welfare
• financial institutions
• sub-saharan africa