This week, South Africa’s National Treasury published the Financial Inclusion Policy Framework for South Africa, entitled An Inclusive Financial Sector for All. The document was endorsed and approved by Cabinet on 8 August 2023. This is reported by the official
website of the South African government.

The first draft of the Financial Inclusion Policy Paper was released for public consultation in October 2020.

In 2011, National Treasury released a policy paper, A Safer Financial Sector to Better Serve the People of South Africa. It provided a comprehensive review of the key challenges facing the financial sector and proposed a roadmap to address them. Among the goals identified as key to building a financial sector that will serve all South Africans was financial inclusion.

While much remains to be done to achieve the goals of financial inclusion, key indicators in South Africa over the past decade reflect the progress South Africa has made, with more than 81 per cent of the adult population having bank accounts.

– The financial inclusion policy aims to:deepen financial inclusion for individuals;
– Increase access to financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises;
– Utilise a more diversified base of financial service providers and distributors in South Africa.

National Treasury will work closely with relevant stakeholders such as financial sector regulators, civil society, government departments, the private sector and other institutions to develop an implementation strategy and action plan, as well as a monitoring and evaluation framework for financial inclusion.

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