Mobile financial services (MFS) are the main drivers of financial inclusion in many developing countries, where they provide low-income consumers with access to transfers, payments, and increasingly more complex products including credit, savings, and insurance. MFS channels can provide the advantages of convenient, secure, and cost-efficient product offerings to consumers. In several markets, MFS have helped to significantly increase the portion of the population with access to formal financial services. To promote both quality and diversity in MFS products, and in turn financial inclusion, it is important to ensure a competitive ecosystem that facilitates entry into the market, the development of innovative MFS products, and high-quality, value-for-money services. This article aims to provide insights into the role that effective competition and competition policy play in developing MFS, and in promoting financial inclusion, using Kenya and Tanzania as case countries.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.