Covid-19 And Digital Financial Inclusion Of Generation Z Within Complex Adaptive Systems
Ms Diana Kangwa
DBA Candidate, Binary University of Management and Entrepreneurship, Malaysia
Mr Joseph Thokozani Mwale
Lecturer, Mulungushi University, P.O. Box 80415,Kabwe, Zambia.
Dr Junaid M Shaikh
Ass. Professor, UTB School of Business, University of Technology Lusaka Zambia
Keywords: COVID-19, Digital Financial Inclusion, Complex Adaptive Systems, Generation Z
Abstract
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has induced unprecedented socio-economic transformations throughout the world thereby revealing deep-seated social inequalities and vulnerabilities in society. The pandemic has disrupted the functionality of many socio-economic systems including the financial ecosystems leading many of these systems into a survival challenge. The resilience or restoration of these systems to normal functionality is dependent upon the adaptive capacity shaped by the inherent potential and connectedness of a given system within its social-cultural setting. This present paper discusses the dynamics of digital financial inclusion of Generation Z under the COVID-19 pandemic as observed through the lens of Complex Adaptive Systems, which is increasingly seen as a scientific frontier that enhances the understanding of complex systems. The paper dwells upon the results of a study on the social production of digital financial inclusion of Generation Z in digital ecosystems that revealed the intrinsic propensity and competency of Generation Z for digital consumerism that could be harnessed to enhance digital financial inclusion of the marginalized segments of society. Using the Complex Adaptive Systems theory, the paper demonstrates that the COVID-19 scenario presents scope for enhancing the digital financial inclusion of the marginalized segments of society through increased access to electronic banking services and financial technologies. The pathway to digital financial inclusion is, therefore, contingent upon the ability of the banking ecosystems to overcome the rigidity trap of non-flexible regulatory frameworks, which occurs at the opposite end of the poverty trap in a maladaptive system typifying the socio-economic setting of sub-Saharan Africa.