Aksel Jakobsen, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

 

 

Aksel Jakobsen took the stage on 28th March at the first ever international Financial Inclusion Summit held in Oslo, on 28th March 2019, to highlight the transformative role fintech and digital technology play in reducing poverty and hunger, in promoting health, and in empowering women across the globe. “Without access to financial services,” Mr Jakobsen said, “people’s entrepreneurship remains underutilised and their creative ideas might never be realised.”

 

Quoting the UN Secretray General, Mr Jakobsen added: “We will not reach the Sustainable Development Goals without making use of digital technologies, a game changer for financial inclusion.”

“Reaching out to the unbanked represent a tremendous business opportunity” added Mr Jakobsen, “Norway and the Nordics are at the forefront of the partnerships among customers, public and private sectors, which are needed to succeed in combating financial exclusion.”

 

To find out more, view the summit report by Mastercard here.