Digital Finance and Institutional Trust in the DRC: Building the Foundations of Inclusive Growth

Ngunza Maniata, Kevin (2025): Digital Finance and Institutional Trust in the DRC: Building the Foundations of Inclusive Growth.

Abstract

Financial inclusion has become a cornerstone of development policy, yet progress across low-income and fragile states remains uneven. This paper examines the evolution of financial inclusion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) using recent data from the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025 and the GSMA’s 2025 Mobile Money Report. Despite global account ownership reaching 79 percent of adults, fewer than 40 percent of Congolese adults hold a formal financial account. The study situates the DRC within an institutional economics framework and highlights structural constraints including informality, weak trust in financial institutions, limited infrastructure, and low financial literacy. The analysis finds that while mobile money is expanding access, its impact depends on improvements in digital infrastructure, governance, and consumer protection. The paper concludes that inclusive finance in the DRC requires not only technological diffusion but also the rebuilding of institutional credibility and human capital.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Financial inclusion; Digital finance; Mobile money; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Institutional trust; Inclusive growth
• Subjects: G - Financial Economics > G2 - Financial Institutions and Services > G21 - Banks ; Depository Institutions ; Micro Finance Institutions ; Mortgages; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O16 - Financial Markets ; Saving and Capital Investment ; Corporate Finance and Governance; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O55 - Africa

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