How Do Clients Use Digital Finance in Daily Life and Daily Practice?

While millions of people across Africa now have access to digital financial services (DFS), access alone doesn’t lead to financial inclusion. What matters is how—and how often—people actually use these tools in their daily lives.

This report explores three dimensions of DFS use:

1. Breadth of use: Despite the growing availability of services like digital credit, savings, and insurance, most users rely on just two features: airtime top-ups and person-to-person transfers. Services that could build long-term financial health remain underused.
2. Frequency of use: DFS is not yet part of everyday transactions. Many users engage only monthly or in response to specific needs, such as school fees or emergencies. The failure to replace cash in daily purchases limits deeper engagement.
3. Rituals of use: People adapt DFS in creative, often unintended ways. Some use mobile money to “self-transfer” cash over distances. Others save not for its own sake, but to increase loan limits. DFS is deeply embedded in social and cultural practices—used for remittances, gifts, emergencies, or community contributions.

To be effective, digital finance must reflect how people actually manage money: often irregularly, collaboratively, and across formal and informal tools. Innovations like pay-as-you-go solar show how services designed around real financial habits can drive meaningful use. The future of inclusive finance depends not just on access, but on designing systems that fit into everyday financial lives. Understanding use—its patterns, behaviors, and motivations—is essential for building services that people value and trust.