What are the costs and benefits of more financial inclusion?

“We may be reaching a point where no matter how much effort we put into trying to improve financial inclusion, the benefit does not outweigh the cost of doing it”.

This quote captures the cost-benefit principle that has been nicknamed the “mother of all economic ideas” and is succinctly analysed in this article. This theory assumes that we (yes, all of us) take action if and only if we calculate that the extra benefit of taking said action is greater than the extra cost. 

So, imagine you are a potential bank customer. You don’t have a bank account, so you keep all your money in cash. Going by cost-benefit analysis reasoning, your decision will depend on, first, the extra costs—filling out a form, long bank queues, internet and even airtime charges to access your money. And second, the additional benefits (access to extra money (loans), ability to save, safety of