“The distance to the nearest branch office is pretty far away. I can’t leave my son and my ‘warong’ for depositing money into a bank account.”
This is one of the common answers when you ask people in rural areas why they are not having a financial account. According to the latest World Bank Global Findex, a third of Indonesian unbanked adults cited physical distance was a barrier to have the account.
Number of Indonesian banked adults rose by 13 pp to 49%, the largest increase in East Asia & Pacific Region (World Bank Global Findex Database, 2017)
Indonesia is not an easy place to provide universal financial access due to geographical limitation. However, Indonesia has recently seen promising use of agent networks to reach more unbanked segments. The number of banking agents is more than 800.000.
We have seen the successful adoption of M-PESA’s agents in Kenya to boost the ownership of mobile money account. The agent is essential to find more balance between tech and touch to give people more access to the financial institution. Financial institutions should empower their agents to better serve the customer.
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