The Postal Sector as a Vector of Financial Inclusion

Abstract

ABSTRACT Access to finance has become a major policy issue under the term Financial Inclusion. In this paper, we focus on the role of postal operators in financial inclusion policies. In developing countries, postal firms typically manage a dense network of counters with a unique coverage of rural areas where the banking sector is totally absent. We use a formal location model for postal counters and bank agencies to show that in rural areas a post‐bank partnership can be a vector of financial inclusion and that this can be done profitably .