When was the last time you set foot inside your local bank branch? For most people, it has been a while.   

A third of UK bank branches have closed in the past year, according to the Office of National Statistics. Natwest says that this is because the majority of accounts are now opened online, and more than 80% of current account holders now use digital services. 

The UK is by no means alone in this. By 2026, it’s estimated that more than half of the global population will use digital banking services. Juniper Research, a fintech research and consultancy firm, suggests that next year, more than 4.2 billion people will have access to mobile banking, up from just 2.5 billion in 2021. 

Digital banking – specifically mobile banking – offers convenience and accessibility to those who may otherwise not be able to attend a bank in person. This inclusivity can have significant and long-lasting consequences, benefiting people around the world.

It’s something that’s transforming rural communities across Africa, new research from Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE) has found, driving migration, improving welfare, and reshaping traditional livelihoods. 

Technology triggering social change

Nova SBE’s Professors of Economics, Cátia Batista and Pedro Vicente, conducted the first large-scale randomised field experiment on the topic in Mozambique.  

This East African country is rich in natural resources, with a tropical climate, diverse marine life, and significant gas reserves, but has a developing economy and faces challenges like poverty, climate vulnerability, and a history of conflict. 

Their research highlights how a simple technological innovation can trigger structural and social transformation, offering both opportunities and challenges for policymakers across the developing world. 

To understand the impact of mobile banking in such geographies, the researchers tracked households in 102 villages across Mozambique over three years.  

Their findings revealed that mobile money, sending and receiving payments and transfers via mobile phones, helped to trigger structural and social change. 

In these communities, they found that the introduction of mobile money led to a 6% reduction in a vulnerability index – which measures episodes of hunger, lack of water, medicines, or school supplies. They also discovered an 8-13% decrease in vulnerability to hunger for communities affected by economic shocks, such as floods.

This is because the mobile money changed how rural communities were able to respond to such events.  

Households with access to mobile money were better able to cope with floods, health crises, and other emergencies. This is because mobile money allows quicker and cheaper receipt of money, especially from relatives or migrants working in cities. This raises the net inflow of funds when a crisis hits, so households can maintain food consumption rather than cutting back. Areas with access to mobile money reported reduced hunger, improved access to education and healthcare, and increased remittances from migrants in other areas. 

“Our results show that mobile money changed core behaviours of rural households, which became more likely to send migrants to earn income elsewhere and to receive remittances in times of need,” say the researchers. 

Leading rural communities to new career paths

While it helps communities quickly respond to unexpected crises, mobile banking can also have long-term effects on community and economic development. 

The researchers discovered that, for rural populations, having access to mobile money may gradually open up new career options , providing a wider range of employment opportunities beyond farming. 

Batista and Vicente believe that these findings may be able to offer a solution to poorer countries where mobile money is not yet available, and where large portions of the population remain engaged in subsistence agriculture.

They say the expansion of mobile money services should be a priority for policy in these countries to accelerate economic development and strengthen resilience.

Technology transforming lives

This isn’t the first time technology has been shown to change lives.  

Similarly, over in sub-Saharan Africa, providing greater access to digital bank transfers is increasing women’s control over household income and improving financial inclusion, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania.  

The research found that women, particularly those who may be relatively less empowered in their households, are more likely to engage in the labour force, be more financially active and experience greater physical mobility if they have been trained on using their accounts. 

Any it’s not only a greater access to financial tools that’s helping to erase social barriers for vulnerable communities. Providing better tech access is helping communities to improve their wellbeing in other ways. 

Another notable example was the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme, launched in rural Peru in 2008. This was a large-scale project that deployed XO laptops to students in primary schools. The goal was to improve education in impoverished regions, and more than 40,000 devices were distributed to around 500 rural Peruvian primary schools. 

The project was fairly successful; for example, having access to these devices increased digital literacy for children in low-income regions. However, it did face some challenges, such as limited teacher training and a lack of internet, which capped its potential.  

In another example, Rwanda’s Babylon Health has provided millions of citizens access to digital medical consultations and triage tools via basic mobile phones since 2016. More recently, it launched an AI-powered triage tool?to help nurses ask patients the right questions, collect relevant information about a patient’s symptoms and provide them with insights to help choose the correct triage path.

This technology has massively reduced pressure on rural clinics in Rwanda and has increased access to medical advice in areas with doctor shortages.

Is technology enough?

While technology can be a useful resource for low to middle income countries, experts are warning it might not be enough. During the Global Development Conference 2025, development experts and researchers warned that low- and middle-income countries were being pushed into a wave of digital transformation without having the basic statistical systems, institutional capacity, and local context needed to ensure that AI and digital tools truly benefited the poor. 

A reality already experienced on a small scale by the laptop scheme in Peru where the tech was present but the infrastructure for maximising its potential was lacking, but on a far broader scale. 

Dr. Johannes Jütting, Executive Head of the PARIS21 Secretariat at the OECD, argues that many low-income countries lack the fundamental conditions required to make use of tools like AI.  

He outlined four key issues: “First, connectivity: without it, there is no practical AI application. Second, technical infrastructure such as data centres and reliable data transmission. Third, human capacity and skills require sustained investment. And fourth, governance and legal frameworks that must be updated to reflect new technologies,” he says. 

He also noted significant risks, especially around confidentiality, privacy, and the fact that most major AI models are trained on data from the Global North. This can introduce bias and reduce their relevance for national statistical offices in the Global South. 

“What I see is a divide inside the Global South,” he said. “Countries like Rwanda, Kenya, the Philippines and Colombia are advanced-sometimes more advanced than OECD members. But others like Mali, Niger, and several small island states, are completely left behind.” 

One of the major problems here is data collection, as some of these countries sometimes lack basic demographic data. Before anything can be improved with technology, this needs to be a priority, he says, 

However, traditional data collection methods, such as censuses and household surveys, are costly, slow, and operationally complex. Many national statistical offices, he explained, lack the workforce, training, and funding required to produce consistent, high-quality data. 

“Digital transformation is not just a technology issue. It is a change-management issue, a capacity-building issue, a skills issue, and a political-will issue,” he explained.

What’s the solution?

For Jütting, the answer does not lie in rolling out more technology, but in strengthening the foundations that make digital tools useful in the first place. In many low income countries, sometimes even the most basic demographic data is missing. Some governments do not have reliable records of how many people are born each year, or how many people live within their borders. Without this information, sophisticated digital systems and AI tools have little to work with.

That is why, he argues, the first step must be investing in national statistical systems. Every country needs a clear strategy for how data is collected, managed, and used, and this must be closely aligned with national development priorities. When data strategies sit outside wider policy planning, digital projects risk becoming fragmented, short-lived, or driven by donor interests rather than local needs. 

Jütting also stresses that governments must invest more of their own resources in their own technology. Reliable connectivity and technical infrastructure are essential if digital tools are to deliver real benefits. Too often, he says, money is poured into high-profile digital initiatives while the underlying data systems needed to support them remain underfunded. Without sustained investment in training, institutions often lack the capacity to maintain systems, protect data, or use insights for decision-making. 

Above all, he warns against viewing digital transformation as a quick fix. Effective transitions are a long-term process that require political will, institutional reform, and careful change management.  

Without these elements in place, digital tools risk widening gaps between countries rather than helping the poorest populations benefit from technological progress. 

So, can technology improve people’s lives?

So technology is not a quick fix. But evidence suggests it can be a powerful tool to help vulnerable populations, where implementation in considered alongside access. 

From helping rural households survive floods and food shortages in Mozambique, to improving access to healthcare in Rwanda, digital financial tools are already shaping how people respond to crisis and uncertainty. 

However, the benefits are not automatic, nor are they always immediate. Without investment in connectivity, data systems, skills, and governance, digital tools risk deepening existing inequalities rather than reducing them. Technology must be matched with policy, infrastructure, and local context to ensure it truly serves those who need it most. 

When those foundations are in place, technology can become a powerful tool to offer poor communities access to opportunities and life-saving information.  

By, Chloë Lane

Interested in this topic? You might also like this…