DIGITAL FINANCE REVOLUTION

HOW SRI LANKA'S WOMEN AND YOUTH ARE BREAKING THE POVERTY CYCLE

- By Ernest Dube, Banan Massoud Elsayed, John Mark Udalang Ojwang

A pioneering digital financial inclusion programme is transforming lives across rural Sri Lanka, offering a blueprint for tackling unemployment in developing economies worldwide

Sri Lanka, in a country where one in five young people struggles to find work, a digital finance initiative is gradually rewriting the economic futures of thousands of youth entrepreneurs, especially women.

As the world marks International Day of Rural Women on October 15, their stories highlight how access to technology and credit is empowering a new generation of rural women to lead change from the ground up. The Digital Financial Inclusion for Youth Economic Empowerment project has reached over 34,000 beneficiaries since September 2022, demonstrating that when technology meets accessible credit, transformation happens fast.

Sri Lanka has been facing a youth unemployment crisis, with 20.6% of people aged 15-24 without work as of early 2024. For young women, the situation is worse at 29.5%. This mirrors a broader global crisis: 2.5 billion adults worldwide don’t use formal financial services, and 75% of poor people are unbanked because of costs, travel distances and burdensome requirements.

With 77.4% of Sri Lanka's population living in rural areas, traditional banking infrastructure often doesn’t reach those who need it most. Research shows the extent of outreach of private operators including NGOs and commercial banks in rural areas remains rather limited. The Pasio platform, implemented through Sejaya Microfinance with support from Education Above All Foundation’s Silatech programme and Gojo Inc., has been working in South and Southeast Asia to change that equation.