Financial inclusion helps lift people out of poverty and can help

Hear now the words of Sri Mulyani Indrawati, whose wisdom resounds like the counsel of an elder to a restless world: “Financial inclusion helps lift people out of poverty and can help speed economic development. It can draw more women into the mainstream of economic activity, harnessing their contributions to society.” This is no mere statement of policy, but a declaration of human dignity, a call to awaken the hidden strength of millions who, though long excluded, carry within them the seeds of prosperity and renewal.

For what is financial inclusion but the opening of locked gates, the tearing down of barriers that keep the poor, the voiceless, and especially women from shaping their own destiny? To be excluded from the world of credit, savings, and commerce is to walk with bound hands, to labor without hope of growth. But when the gates are opened, when the farmer gains access to loans, when the mother may save her earnings safely, when the girl is taught not only letters but numbers, then the whole community rises. For wealth is not in gold alone, but in the unleashed power of human potential.

Consider the story of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. In a land scarred by famine and poverty, he saw not helpless victims but untapped creators. He gave small loans, often to women, whom society had dismissed as powerless. With these modest sums, they built businesses, sent their children to school, and transformed their villages. What once seemed impossible became a movement that lifted millions. This is the living example of Sri Mulyani’s truth: that financial inclusion is not charity, but empowerment, not a gift, but the unleashing of dormant strength.

The ancients too understood this principle, though they spoke in other terms. When Rome granted land to its soldiers, when Athens gave citizenship to broader classes of men, the state flourished, for it widened the circle of participation. So too in our age: when economic activity includes not merely the privileged few but the many—especially the women whose labor has too often been hidden—the strength of society multiplies. Denial breeds stagnation, but inclusion begets abundance.

Yet let us not be deceived: poverty is not merely the absence of money, but the absence of opportunity. A man with skill but no tools remains poor. A woman with vision but no access remains trapped. Thus, to include the excluded is not only to give resources, but to extend dignity, to say, “You belong. Your work matters. Your future is tied to ours.” Such recognition transforms despair into purpose, and purpose into prosperity.

The lesson is clear: if we wish to see true economic development, we must look not only to the towers of the wealthy but to the villages, the markets, the small shops, the hidden labor of women and the forgotten hands of the poor. There lies the sleeping giant of progress. When we give them access to credit, training, and fair systems, we do not merely help them—we help all, for the rising tide lifts every boat.

What, then, must we do? Support policies and institutions that widen the reach of banks, cooperatives, and digital finance. Defend the right of women to own property, to sign contracts, to labor and to profit. In your own life, honor the dignity of the poor by trading fairly, by supporting enterprises that uplift, by seeing not weakness but potential in every hand you meet. For in doing so, you serve not only individuals but the greater good of society.

Thus remember: the strength of a people lies not in the wealth of the few, but in the empowerment of the many. Financial inclusion is not a question of numbers, but of justice. Lift the vulnerable, and you will lift the world. Unlock the potential of women, and you will unleash the power of generations. This is the wisdom of Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and this is the charge passed down to you: make no one a stranger to the economy of human dignity, and civilisation itself shall flourish.