Gates Foundation financial inclusion exit raises questions for DPI ecosystems

The Gates Foundation will end its global financial inclusion work by 2030, saying the sector has made sufficient progress.

“Our goal was never to be a permanent actor in this space,” Michael Wiegand, the foundation’s director of inclusive financial systems, told The Banker.

Wiegand added that the program is in its final phase and will end in 2030, before pointing out the advances made. The foundation spent $150 million on inclusive financial systems for 2024, according to its most recent annual report.

The World Bank’s Global Findex 2025 report, of which the foundation is a donor, showed 75 percent of adults in low‑ and middle‑income countries now use formal or mobile financial services.

The report showed that 95 percent of adults in low and middle-income countries now have ID, making it near-universal everywhere except Sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of formal ID is a major barrier to financial inclusion in developing regions.

The foundation’s work has steered global policy from microcredit, which was pioneered in the 1980s, toward digital financial services with its early, risk‑tolerant capital credited with accelerating adoption.

Wiegand believes that a broad network of technical experts, digital public goods groups, regional organizations, and private‑sector players is now leading implementation, beyond what philanthropic funding could achieve on its own.

He added that this ecosystem is well‑positioned to keep pushing inclusive financial systems forward long after 2030.

Commenting on the news, Rahul Parthe, chairman and co-founder of Tech5, said it was a reminder to those building DPI and inclusion programs.

“If we don’t design self-sustaining national models, we risk replacing an ‘aid mentality’ with a dependency mentality — and creating a system that optimizes for short-term KPIs, reports, and consulting cycles rather than long-term country outcomes,” Parthe posted on LinkedIn.

Parthe recommended regulated eKYC, secure authentication and transaction rails, with small fees but big volumes, translating to sustainable practice.

Players in the biometrics, digital identity and DPI space could be affected, such as the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP). Bill Gates himself visited MOSIP’s home offices in Bangalore, India, with the Gates Foundation a major backer of the non-profit.

“MOSIP is fortunate to have had the BMGF’s support over many years, and we were honoured to have this opportunity to showcase MOSIP’s milestones, major achievements, and roadmaps to the team and their Illustrious Founder,” the ID platform posted on its blog, following the Microsoft co-founder’s visit.

In September 2025, the Gates Foundation provided $10 million to Senegal’s digital transformation. The Senegalese presidency said the partnership with the foundation would enable the deployment of a universal digital identity along with other initiatives, such as a creation of an AI hub.

A partner to many governments and transnational bodies, the Gates Foundation has worked with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI). Last July, the two organizations partnered to launch with Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs a study to help close the country’s financial inclusion gap.

With the winding down of the Gates Foundation’s financial inclusion program, it remains to be seen if non-profits like MOSIP will look for greater commercialization opportunities to continue its work, in order to fund its staff, outreach and technical support.

TBI and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have jointly supported digital inclusion and development, such as an initiative with Zambia signed in November. As Wiegand said, an ecosystem exists, but the ending of a major backer and the funds it provided will have significant ramifications for the financial inclusion space. The road to 2030 is speeding up.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital inclusion  |  digital public infrastructure  |  financial inclusion  |  Gates Foundation  |  investment  |  SDG 16.9