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<p>Did COVID-19 Accelerate Digital Finance and Financial Inclusion</p>

Domain:

digital infrastructuresocioeconomic

Record type:

paper
Creator:
Imr
Publisher:
Elsevier BV
Host:
This study presents an original and comprehensive evaluation of the transformative and permanent impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital payments and adoption across selected Asian and African economies between 2018 and 2024. Using balanced panel data from Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, and applying a demanding panel-data least-squares framework with dummy and interaction terms, the analysis evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 Stringency Index (CSI) on financial inclusion outcomes. The results reveal statistically robust evidence that stricter COVID-19 policies significantly increased digital payment adoption, with a 21-percentage-point increase in usage per additional unit of policy stringency (p < 0.01). The model explains approximately 88-90% of the variation in digital payment use across countries (R² = 0.90). These findings confirm that stringent COVID-19 restrictions served as a structural driver of digital financial inclusion in both Asia and Africa. This study provides one of the first cross-continental empirical analyses linking COVID-19 policy stringency to digital payment adoption across Asia and Africa. By using a continuous Stringency Index and robust panel regression, it demonstrates a long-lasting, universal acceleration of digital financial inclusion driven by crisis-induced policy restrictions.

Licenses

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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