The Challenges of FinTech Inclusion and Digitization of SMEs in Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people's digital behavior and caused giant leaps in various digital businesses. SMEs face various challenging factors in the transformation of their business into a digital ecosystem. Currently, Indonesia is the country with the fastest-growing digital economy and FinTech in ASEAN. Fintech plays a vital role in the digital economy, especially helping SMEs go digital and accelerate their business performance, such as venture capital financing, digital payment services, and financial arrangements. However, the role of fintech has not been maximized in increasing financial inclusion. There are still various obstacles and challenges such as technology adoption, financial literacy, digital literacy, financial inclusion, and fintech inclusion, and various program efforts from all stakeholders to bring SMEs into the digital ecosystem. Without cooperation, increasing financial literacy and financial inclusion and fintech inclusion will be challenging to achieve.