Proposing “Mobile, Finance, and Information” Toolkit for Financial Inclusion of the Poor in Developing Countries

Since 2015, the Government of India has been designing policies for transforming the country with over 400 million unbanked adults into a cashless economy so that a majority of financial transactions can be carried over mobile devices, the most widely used information and communication technology in the country. However, over 200 million adults earning less than $2 a day have a low or little mobile, financial, or information literacy. This short paper reports a newly proposed interdisciplinary, six-step toolkit operationalized using a survey questionnaire, focus group prompts, and hands-on training for developing mobile, financial, and information literacy among the poor in developing countries like India. Implications for public libraries, governments, and the poor in developing countries and beyond are discussed at the end.

This short paper is published in the Information in Contemporary Society, 14th International Conference, iConference 2019, Washington, DC, USA, March 31–April 3, 2019, Proceedings, See https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-15742-5_22.