As marketing coups go, getting your Logo onto more than 100m national-identity cards takes some beating. MasterCard is about to pull off this branding feat as Nigeria's elec-tronicID and payment card, currently being piloted, is introduced nationally. Providing financial services to customers who previously had no access to them is another side to fintech, often starting with payments. Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people-over half the adult population-Lack bank accounts. This financial exclusion leaves the poor relying on informal ways of saving (eg, cash under the mattress) or borrowing (eg, exorbitantly priced payday lenders). Development experts used to try to get banks to open branches in out-of-the-way places. Now they gush about bank-free finance, based on mobile payments or ID-based schemes of the sort Nigeria is bringing in.
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