The Internet-Account Gap 2026: Where Financial Inclusion Outpaces Connectivity
The standard assumption about digital financial services is that they require a digital connection. To check your balance via an app, or pay a bill online, or move money between accounts, you need a device with an internet connection — and that means your country’s internet penetration rate sets a ceiling on how many adults can participate.
The data behind FinStatGlobe suggests otherwise. Across 142 economies with both internet-adoption data (World Bank WDI) and account-ownership data (Global Findex 2024 wave), the correlation between the two is real but far from absolute. In nearly a third of these economies, the share of adults with a financial account exceeds the share with internet access — sometimes by very wide margins.
The engine of that reversal is mobile money: accounts held with a phone-based money service rather than a conventional bank, accessed through basic USSD menus and agent networks rather than smartphone apps. This report maps every economy in the dataset by the gap between its internet penetration and its account ownership rate — a gap that tells you which countries have wired their financial systems ahead of their digital infrastructure, and which have connectivity but not yet inclusion.
For the broader picture of account ownership trends, see our State of Financial Inclusion 2026 report. For an explainer on the mobile money infrastructure that enables many of these bypassed accounts, see The Mobile Money Transaction Ecosystem.
The top 20: where accounts run ahead of the internet
The economies with the largest positive gap — where account ownership exceeds internet penetration — are dominated by Sub-Saharan African countries where mobile money has created a parallel financial infrastructure.
| # | Economy | Account ownership | Internet penetration | Gap (pp) | Mobile money accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uganda | 72.8% (2024) | 8.9% (2024) | +63.9 | 67.7% |
| 2 | Zambia | 72.7% (2024) | 17.1% (2024) | +55.6 | 69.3% |
| 3 | Kenya | 90.1% (2024) | 35.0% (2024) | +55.1 | 87.5% |
| 4 | Mozambique | 54.4% (2024) | 20.5% (2024) | +33.9 | — |
| 5 | Malawi | 50.4% (2024) | 19.0% (2024) | +31.4 | — |
| 6 | Tanzania | 59.8% (2024) | 31.2% (2024) | +28.6 | 52.9% |
| 7 | Sri Lanka | 81.7% (2024) | 54.6% (2024) | +27.1 | — |
| 8 | Ethiopia | 48.8% (2024) | 21.9% (2024) | +26.9 | — |
| 9 | Burkina Faso | 51.4% (2024) | 28.3% (2024) | +23.1 | — |
| 10 | Nigeria | 63.3% (2024) | 41.2% (2024) | +22.1 | 32.8% |
| 11 | Liberia | 52.2% (2024) | 32.2% (2024) | +20.0 | — |
| 12 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 39.2% (2024) | 19.7% (2024) | +19.5 | — |
| 13 | India | 89.0% (2024) | 70.0% (2025) | +19.0 | 23.1% |
| 14 | Mali | 54.7% (2024) | 36.8% (2024) | +17.9 | — |
| 15 | Togo | 57.4% (2024) | 39.5% (2024) | +17.9 | — |
| 16 | Benin | 51.8% (2024) | 34.0% (2024) | +17.8 | — |
| 17 | Senegal | 76.5% (2024) | 60.1% (2024) | +16.4 | — |
| 18 | Mauritius | 89.6% (2024) | 73.3% (2024) | +16.3 | — |
| 19 | Côte d’Ivoire | 57.6% (2024) | 41.4% (2024) | +16.2 | — |
| 20 | Cameroon | 60.9% (2024) | 46.3% (2024) | +15.5 | — |
Mobile money account data shown where available from the Global Findex 2024 wave. For the countries where mobile-money accounts are tracked, they typically account for most of the gap.
Uganda is the most extreme case: just 8.9% of Ugadans use the internet (2024 WDI), yet 72.8% of adults have a financial account, and 67.7% hold a mobile-money account specifically. Kenya, the home of M-PESA, runs a similar play: 35% internet penetration, 90.1% account ownership. In both countries, the vast majority of accounts are mobile-money accounts, accessed through basic USSD text menus (requiring no internet connection at all) and the extensive agent networks that blanket the country.
Where connectivity exceeds inclusion
The other end of the ranking shows a different problem: economies with relatively high internet penetration but low account ownership. These are not countries that lack digital infrastructure — they lack financial products that make use of it.
| # | Economy | Account ownership | Internet penetration | Gap (pp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lebanon | 23.0% (2024) | 80.6% (2024) | −57.6 |
| 2 | Iraq | 30.2% (2024) | 81.5% (2024) | −51.3 |
| 3 | Jordan | 46.5% (2024) | 95.6% (2024) | −49.1 |
| 4 | Libya | 33.1% (2024) | 82.0% (2024) | −48.9 |
| 5 | Palestine | 39.6% (2024) | 86.6% (2024) | −47.0 |
| 6 | Morocco | 44.4% (2024) | 91.2% (2024) | −46.8 |
| 7 | Algeria | 35.3% (2024) | 77.4% (2024) | −42.1 |
| 8 | Albania | 46.1% (2024) | 85.9% (2024) | −39.8 |
| 9 | Tunisia | 37.8% (2024) | 76.5% (2024) | −38.7 |
| 10 | Nicaragua | 23.5% (2024) | 61.4% (2024) | −37.9 |
These are predominantly Middle Eastern and North African economies. Jordan, at 95.6% internet penetration, has better connectivity than the Netherlands (97%) — but only 46.5% of adults hold an account, compared to the Netherlands’ 99.2%. The difference is not technological capability but the absence of the mobile-money ecosystem that drives inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile money accounts in Jordan reach just 20.6% of adults. In Morocco, that figure is 5.9%.
For a comparison of how bank accounts and mobile money accounts relate, see Banks vs Mobile Money: Account Ownership Across Two Systems.
The aligned top: where both are near-universal
At the very top of the internet-adoption ranking — the economies above 95% connectivity — the gap between internet and accounts shrinks to near-zero, and the direction flips. Most high-income economies have account ownership rates that slightly exceed their (already very high) internet penetration.
| Economy | Account ownership | Internet penetration | Gap (pp) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iceland | 99.9% (2024) | 98.2% (2024) | +1.7 |
| Netherlands | 99.2% (2024) | 97.0% (2024) | +2.2 |
| United Kingdom | 99.3% (2024) | 95.5% (2024) | +3.8 |
| Sweden | 98.6% (2025) | 95.8% (2025) | +2.8 |
| Denmark | 98.7% (2024) | 99.8% (2024) | −1.1 |
| South Korea | 96.9% (2024) | 97.9% (2024) | −1.0 |
In these economies, both internet and account ownership sit at or near 99%. The mobile-money bypass is irrelevant because the traditional banking system reaches essentially everyone, and internet-enabled digital payment adoption — measured by our digital payments divide dataset — is also at ceiling levels.
For context on mobile subscriptions as the foundational layer, see The World’s Most Connected Economies: Mobile Subscriptions 2026.
What the gap tells us
The internet-account gap reveals three distinct worlds:
-
The mobile-money bypass (large positive gap): Countries where mobile money has let account ownership race ahead of internet connectivity. These are almost all Sub-Saharan African economies with well-developed mobile-money agent networks. The internet is not a prerequisite for participation — USSD menus on a basic feature phone are enough.
-
The connectivity-inclusion lag (large negative gap): Countries where internet penetration is high but account ownership remains low. These tend to be Middle Eastern and North African economies where the infrastructure for digital connectivity is present but the financial ecosystem — particularly mobile-money infrastructure — has not developed to bridge the gap.
-
The mature alignment (near-zero gap): High-income economies where both metrics have converged at 95–99%. There is no meaningful gap because the entire adult population already has both connectivity and an account.
For an explainer on how internet adoption forms the underlying foundation for digital financial services, see Internet Adoption: The Foundation of Fintech. For the gender dimension of these gaps, see our Gender Gap in Fintech 2026 report.
Sources & method
The internet adoption figures come from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (indicator IT.NET.USER.ZS), covering the share of the population using the internet, primarily observed in 2024. Account ownership figures come from the World Bank Global Findex 2024 wave (indicator account.t.d), representing the share of adults aged 15+ with an account at a bank, other financial institution, or mobile-money provider. Mobile-money account ownership data is from the Global Findex (mobileaccount.t.d).
The analysis covers 142 economies for which both metrics were available in the derived datasets. Data years vary by country and are cited individually in the tables above — some internet figures are 2025 vintage, while others are 2024, and the Global Findex data is from the 2024 survey wave (fielded in 2023–2024). No projections are used. See our methodology page for the full data-construction approach.