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Financial exclusion is not only about the poorest members of society.
In many countries, those who are financially excluded are also wage earners,
people like teachers or doctors or accountants or even government employees.
People who are earning a monthly or a weekly wage,
yet who have to go and collect their salary in cash
and therefore make all of their payments in cash.
So in some countries, it's estimated that around a third of
official school time is actually lost due to teachers having to take the day off,
travel and queue up for hours just to go and collect their pay in cash.
This is a huge leap when you are trying to create efficiencies in the economy.
Think about all the time and effort that could be saved
and the school time that actually could be used effectively if
people were earning digitally and were able
to receive their money into a digital account.
Like today, most of us in the developed world
have a bank account in which we receive our wages.
Many of the unbanked are also those people who are running small businesses
or even medium-sized businesses like a shop or a wholesale trader or distributor.
Not having a bank account not only leaves them vulnerable to theft,
but it means that their business is limited to the customers and
the other businesses who can physically transact with them in cash.
So if you're trading agricultural products for example,
you can only buy your next supply of stock when
the supplier comes to town and can be paid in cash.
Paying your own employees or
your operational costs like your electricity bill or your rent,
and other running costs those are all done in cash.
So, in our world, in reality,
having a bank account isn't just about storing your money,
it's about the ability to transact with other people
and businesses or to facilitate payments,
incoming payments and outgoing payments
especially with other entities that are physically distant from you.
