Role of mobile banking in financial inclusion: key challenges and barriers

Financial inclusion is crucial for ensuring equitable access to financial products and services. It empowers financially underserved individuals and businesses, while facilitating the integration of low-income communities into the formal financial sector. It also plays a significant role in promoting women’s socio-economic independence, thus helping them improve their well-being and that of their families. This chapter explores the substantial role that mobile banking plays in promoting financial inclusion. It introduces a framework aimed at identifying the role of mobile banking and the primary challenges and barriers to achieving financial inclusion through this channel. These challenges include, but are not limited to, accessibility, affordability and digital literacy. A systematic literature review was conducted to shed light on this matter. The key contributions of this chapter involve providing rich details of these challenges, offering insights into the latest research trends and suggesting potential solutions to enhance financial inclusion through mobile banking.