Women’s Financial Inclusion, FinTech and Market-Based Solutions to Poverty Alleviation

FinTech is heralded by international development entities, NGOs, and investment firms alike as delivering financial inclusion and women’s empowerment. This paper examines these claims and situates FinTech within 20 years of microfinance and micro-enterprise programs aimed at poverty alleviation. The promotion of what has been called “livelihood” finance as a neoliberal solution to development is challenged for ignoring the realities of credit for high-risk borrowers and the tragic past outcomes of failed experimentation in microfinance.