FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION
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Accelerators to an Inclusive Digital Payments Ecosystem

Many governments have already realized major benefits by digitizing payments. Yet these successes also raise important questions. Why are so many developing and emerging countries only in the early stages of their journey to cashless? Why haven’t successes been rolled out more widely?

The reality is that despite the evidence about what creating digital economies means, until now there hasn’t been a coherent and tailorable framework available to governments and companies about how to realize these gains.

This is partly because knowledge about digital payments has been highly fragmented. The lack of a broad and cohesive analytical framework has prevented governments and companies from leveraging the experiences of other markets and players to implement digital payments most effectively.

This paper addresses this gap. It reviews 25 countries where digitization has had great impact and reveals 10 tangible steps, or “accelerators,” that governments and companies can take to build inclusive digital economies.

Not every accelerator needs to be implemented to ensure success, and indeed the most suitable will depend on the contexts and conditions prevailing in the given market. However, in these accelerators, policymakers and business leaders now have a guiding map charted by others who have successfully travelled further along the path to an inclusive digital economy.