Frontier markets are having their moment. Powered by young, growing populations, the proliferation of affordable technology, and a low base effect, they stand in stark contrast to much of the developed world, delivering robust economic growth and improving quality of life generation after generation.
Yet for all these positives, these markets are still leaving enormous growth on the table. The root cause is straightforward: low rates of financial inclusion mean that much economic activity in frontier markets takes place in the shadows.
The scale of this problem should not be underestimated. According to the International Labour Organisation, informal activity accounts for around 58% of global economic output, rising to more than 80% of employment in lower-income countries. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and beyond, informal work is the dominant mode of economic participation. These are farmers, traders, craftsmen, and small shop owners who help keep their countries running – yet remain almost entirely invisible to the financial system and absent from official statistics.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
That invisibility carries a heavy toll. Governments are starved of the tax revenues needed for public investment, businesses cannot access the capital required to scale, and consumers are confined to cash transactions with local vendors. In addition, local entrepreneurs don’t have the safety nets they need to operate securely. For example, a small business without insurance means that a single minor shock can be enough to sink it.
The good news – change is already underway
Digital financial services are expanding rapidly across frontier markets, creating unprecedented opportunities for inclusion. Where traditional banks were once the preserve of a privileged few – with people in remote rural communities never having set foot in a branch – digital banking is dismantling those barriers and opening the formal economy to virtually anyone with a mobile phone.
We have come a long way since I entered the telecommunications industry in 2015, when the idea that a phone could replace a bank branch felt incredibly distant. But today, we see large segments of the population across markets managing their financial lives without visiting a bank at all.
>$2tn: Global money transactions in 2025
A recent GSMA report demonstrates this trend, finding that global mobile money transactions exceeded $2tn in 2025, doubling in value in just four years. And the transformative potential can also be seen in hard numbers, with McKinsey estimating that widespread digital finance adoption could add up to 6% to GDP in emerging economies.
Moving money is important, but it’s just the beginning. The deeper driver of economic growth lies in unlocking the full potential of small businesses. Access to capital is an investment in the future – enabling businesses to scale, create jobs, and set off a virtuous cycle of growth. For too long, that access has been blocked for many people in frontier markets who do not have formal employment records, documented income histories and established credit profiles, rendering them invisible to the financial services ecosystem.
An important role of fintech trailblazers like JazzCash, Pakistan’s largest digital financial services provider, is to break that vicious cycle by leveraging alternative data to broaden the lens through which financial identity and creditworthiness are assessed. We draw on wallet transactions, payment patterns and mobile usage, leveraging AI to build meaningful financial profiles for people based on their actual behaviour, and not just their formal paperwork.
Over 178 million loans disbursed to date
Being part of JazzWorld, Pakistan’s leading integrated digital services ecosystem, also gives us additional data sources, illustrating how different digital services can work in concert to create a more complete picture of customer behaviour. Using this approach, we have become Pakistan’s largest digital lender by volume, issuing over 178 million loans and disbursing over 200,000 daily.
Our approach to helping expand financial inclusion to underserved parts of the population extends to women. Across emerging and frontier markets, women are disproportionately likely to work informally and be excluded from formal financial services.
Closing the financial inclusion gender gap
In Pakistan, closing the financial inclusion gender gap represents one of the largest untapped economic opportunities in the region. Women who gain access to credit and savings invest in their children’s education, their households’ health, and their communities’ stability, driving a strong multiplier effect.
Through alternative data-driven credit models and dedicated women’s accounts, JazzCash has raised female participation in our ecosystem to 34%, with a clear path to 50%. Treating women’s inclusion as an add-on to financial inclusion strategy is a choice to leave growth unrealised.
This approach is not unique to JazzCash. Across geographies, similar innovations leveraging alternative data are taking root to expand financial inclusion. In Kenya, M-Shwari uses transaction history and behavioural data to assess loan eligibility through mobile phones, disbursing billions in loans to 32 million users. In the Philippines, fintechs like Salmon deploy AI-driven credit evaluation drawing on alternative data integrated directly into mobile experiences.
Enabling accessible payments infrastructure represents another powerful lever. In Pakistan, JazzCash makes it possible for 1.4 million businesses to accept QR code payments through Raast, the country’s national payments system. This gives consumers an alternative to cash payments while helping businesses document their earnings and build their financial profiles over time. This is not just a local trend – merchant payments rose by nearly 50% to reach $155bn in 2025, making it the fastest-growing mobile money use case worldwide, according to the GSMA report.
Frontier markets are developing quickly and have a remarkable opportunity to further accelerate their growth. Strong demographic trends, digitally-literate populations, and high rates of smartphone penetration and connectivity provide an exceptional foundation. Digital financial services are the key to building on that foundation to connect more people and businesses than ever before to the tools they need to reach their potential, harnessing it to transform these economies at scale.
Murtaza Ali, CEO, JazzCash
