Access to financial services to develop activities, save, smooth expenses and incomes, or send money to people far away has been a factor in society
's development
. Many scholars recognize financial inclusion
as promoting economic growth
and development
(Ozili and Mhlanga
2023). Nevertheless, financial services have proven to be limited and inaccessible to many. According to CGAP (
2023), around 1.4 billion adults lack access to a financial account. This statistic is the key reason for microfinance
: giving more people access to financial services that are useful for everyone but are generally only accessible to a minority. Indeed, Rhyne (
2014, p. 47) argues that “through microfinance
, hundreds of millions of clients who mainstream financial institutions had previously ignored have access to products that most of us take for granted in our daily lives.“ In this vein, microfinance
is probably one aspect of finance most often associated with social impact
. …