I learned from the video that the world needs to keep pushing forward to financial inclusion. Currently, over 2 billion people are either unbanked or underbanked – people outside of the banking systems and people who cannot access the full scope of opportunities these systems offer (TED, 2021). In other words, governments should move towards the inclusion of people outside of the mainstreams of financial institutions that we take for granted. These opportunities or mainstreams are real-time access to transactions, credit systems, and insurance.
The main speaker Ajay Banga argued that movement towards the cashless or digitalized society might benefit a country’s economy by reducing the burdens associated with cash productions which encompass over 1% of the GDP (TED, 2021). For “Third World Countries,” the increase of 1% GDP may not be as vivid compared to developed countries such as the US or the UK because of the simple difference in sheer size. However, the impact would still be substantial even for countries with small economic power as it would be possible to facilitate the growth of individual businesses through small-scale investments. Moreover, perhaps with countries shifting towards digitalized currency, it would be possible to switch to cryptocurrencies more efficiently, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Thus, it would be possible to observe the postponing or negation of the forecasted fall of cryptocurrencies and develop a new financial ecosystem with free and transparent cash flow.
Consequently, I think that governments should start allocating resources to the affiliated infrastructure. Investments in information technology necessary for creating a financial identity database should be prioritized but not at the cost of sustainability. Development programs should start from financial inclusion of the population which remains “in the dark.” Then steady shift towards broadening of the available functions should follow. In the end, a society with minimized physical cash flow would benefit from the instantaneousness of transactions and reduced consumption of paper spent of cash production.
Reference
TED. (2021). Financial inclusion, the digital divide and other thoughts on the future of money | Ajay Banga. YouTube.