Introduction

The swift development of modern financial services all around the world, powered by technological innovation and high-speed communications and computer networks, has extended the benefits of banking and finance to billions. At the same time, there remains a vast informal financial sector, serving communities that still lack access to formal banking. We believe a pan-African investigation of these informal financial networks – the ‘savings groups’ found in almost every African country, with many different structures and methods but featuring many common threads – reveals their potential for growth and collaboration, while technological changes emerge as tools to unify strategies, empower communities and smooth the path to formal financial integration.