MSME Financing Series: The Role of Digital Payments

The publication by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific highlights the vital role of digital payments in enhancing financial inclusion and economic development for MSMEs in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. It emphasizes the transformative power of technology in reshaping finance and payments to cater to a broader population, including the unbanked. The pandemic underscored the importance of leveraging digital solutions for a more resilient, inclusive economy that addresses the needs of all segments, from the privileged to the underserved.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) released a new publication as part of its national studies on Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’ (MSME) access to finance in selected countries of Asia and the Pacific. The new edition underscores the role of technology in transforming money, payments, and finance within a growing social digital transformation. In this vein, MSMEs provide the necessary platform to reach a larger population of unbanked and underserved segments necessary for broader financial inclusion and inclusive economic development. This was further demonstrated by the COVID-19 crisis which accentuated the implications of existing factors vis-à-vis individual economies in recalibrating their present and long-term recovery efforts to ensure a more resilient and inclusive economy that addresses the needs of the privileged and equally the neglected.