In SSA, the percentage of the population with an account at a financial institution is just above 30 per cent, compared with almost 50 per cent in emerging Asia and almost 70 per cent in East Asia.
Only about 23 per cent of small and medium enterprises in Africa have access to formal financing.12 The SADC Financial Inclusion Strategy Workshop Report13, developed by the FinMark Trust and presented to stakeholders in February 2016, notes that financial inclusion in the SADC region is relatively low and varies widely across countries.