MSME Financing Series: The Role of Digital Payments

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.