Digital credit for all? An empirical analysis of mobile loans for financial inclusion in Kenya

Kim, Minjin and Duvendack, Maren ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8125-9115 (2024) Digital credit for all? An empirical analysis of mobile loans for financial inclusion in Kenya. Information Technology for Development. ISSN 1554-0170

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Abstract

Digital credit has shown considerable success in Kenya and is expected to provide opportunities for individuals excluded from formal loans because of their lower socioeconomic status. However, evidence supporting the greater positive impact of digital credit on financial inclusion than that of traditional loans is lacking. This study employs a multinomial logistic regression to investigate the impact of digital credit services, particularly mobile banking and FinTech loans (MBLs and FTLs), on financial inclusion in Kenya. MBLs appear to be less accessible to vulnerable populations, such as women, low-educated groups, and casual workers although both MBLs and FTLs are equally accessible to rural populations. In contrast, FTL services show no such constraints in terms of accessibility for women and low-income workers. This disparity indicates the relative inaccessibility of MBLs to vulnerable groups compared to that of FTLs; however, note that greater loan access does not always benefit vulnerable groups.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/decent_work_and_economic_growth
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	12 Sep 2024 12:30
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2024 19:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96735
DOI:	10.1080/02681102.2024.2402996

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