Africa and the Middle East are the world’s least developed markets when it comes to retail banking services and financial inclusion. While mobile money services have had a dramatic impact in many African countries, sub-Saharan Africa as a whole remains underserved, with just 43% of adults over the age of 15 holding a bank account in 2017, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex Database.
The picture remains broadly true for the Middle East as well. Overall account ownership in 2017 stood at just 48% of adults across the region, according to the World Bank, despite high levels of account ownership in affluent countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel and Saudi Arabia.