Tanzania’s National Financial Inclusion Framework and How It Facilitated Financial Inclusion: A Forgotten Political-Economic Story

Abstract

This article brings the National Financial Inclusion Framework (NFIF) into the political-economic literature and discussions lacking in political-economic debates. Financial inclusion has become a global political-economic agenda that tries to reverse the higher levels of financial exclusion globally. However, political-economic and development literature has done little to discuss the issues of financial inclusion and exclusion as we currently perceive them through a neoliberal lens and innovative financial activities. These activities may include inclusive digital financial services such as mobile money. This article tries to answer the following research question: ‘how does the NFIF support financial inclusion in Tanzania?’ This article explores the NFIF, its successes and issues in Tanzania. The content analysis of relevant official documents and the literature, on the one hand, and the in-depth unstructured interviews, on the other, have been used as the primary data collection methods. The findings indicate that the NFIF has been instrumental in facilitating the success of financial inclusion in Tanzania, despite its issues. From Tanzania’s study, the conclusion is that given a conducive and supporting environment, the NFIF has facilitated the success of financial inclusion in Tanzania.