Acquiring services in emerging economies
After resolving the infrastructure issue, there are still 2 major barriers to accessing broadband services within emerging economies.
- Means of identification
- Means of payment
There are over 1 billion people worldwide without the means of identifying themselves (Desai, Diofasi, & Lu, 2018), and that is a potential problem in accessing services, including connecting to the internet.
Over 31% of adults worldwide do not have access to proper banking (Felsenthal & Hahn, 2018), meaning they also have limited options to pay for goods and services and no means to build a credit line.
An interesting statistic is the level of blockchain adoption in areas such as Nigeria, leading in global cryptocurrency adoption with 32%. In comparison, arguably the most crypto-friendly developed country, Switzerland, has an adoption rate of 11% and only 6% adoption in the US. (Oluwole, 2021)
Even with limited connection and hardware, global financial inclusion may be possible without banks. People may be ready and willing to explore such opportunities, with the main barrier to regular and efficient use being inadequate or nonexistent connectivity and hardware.
How Common Is Crpyto?
Share of respondents in selected countries who said that they used or owned crypto currencies (2020)
Figure 2 How Common Is Crypto?