Digital Finance That Speaks Your Language

Imagine for a moment that you are a farmer living in a small rural community in the highlands of Kenya. For as long as you can remember, you have been producing export-quality Arabica coffee. Lately, however, your coffee plants have been decimated by leaf rust. More and more people you know have taken out loans to buy new, disease-resistant varieties and fungicides but you are still not entirely comfortable with taking loans. The last time you looked into it, though, you couldn’t make sense of the loan terms or the repayment schedules.

A younger family member shows you a mobile money tutorial on her phone trying to help you learn the basics of applying for a loan. The training is in English, not Swahili, and you only understand a little from your few years at school, but you try to follow along. The examples in the training illustrate how to use mobile money to access a loan, but they all feature people who look very different from you and live in unfamiliar urban settings, doing activities far removed from your experience. You can’t relate. You begin to wonder if a loan is really for you after all.

The need for improved digital financial literacy

Unfortunately, this situation is not just in your imagination. While digital financial literacy (DFL) programs are growing across the developing world, many are not offered in the local language people speak day to day. Plus, they tend to share relatively generic content not tailored to local culture.

So while access to digital financial services (DFS) has grown tremendously over the past decade, millions of people still don’t understand how to use these services safely or confidently. This is why improving DFL is so important: to help people like you – the rural Kenyan farmer – access, use and benefit from financial services with confidence and safety.

Source: The digital financial literacy toolkit: Addressing the gap in low- and middle-income countries (GSMA).

The need for localized digital financial literacy

To test DFL content with real users, the GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation teamed up with Visa Inc. and Safaricom Kenya. We found that digital financial literacy content is most effective when localized: delivered in people’s languages, reflecting their cultures and showing relatable, real-life situations.  Why does localization work?

• It facilitates comprehension: People understand better when content is in their own language and explained in ways that feel natural.
• It builds trust: Using examples that feel relevant and reflect daily realities makes content credible.
• It drives behavior change: People feel comfortable enough to try new DFS tools and stick with them.

Five ways to localize digital financial literacy content

The localization of DFL content isn’t just about translating into the local language. It is a multi-faceted exercise that includes at least five main areas of adaptation:

1. Language localization: Developing content in local languages is the obvious starting point – and it’s essential. People can’t learn effectively if the content isn’t in the language they understand best. For example, financial literacy tutorials should be offered in Swahili, Hausa, Amharic or Chichewa – not only English – to reach low-literacy individuals who are likely to only speak a vernacular language. In the GSMA-Visa pilots, providing content in familiar languages helped widen access, especially among first-time users.

2. Cultural and contextual localization: Localization really comes alive when the educational content is not only translated to the local language but also adjusted to the local culture. People connect with examples that reflect their day-to-day lives and are rooted in their own traditions and livelihoods. Tailoring content to the specific needs of population and community segments, such as farmers, micro-merchants and women, enhances relevance and impact. For example:

• Use stories that reference familiar terms, such as informal savings groups – chamas, susu, tontines – instead of explaining savings in purely bank-based terms.
• Describe situations that reflect local livelihoods, like seasonal income cycles for farmers or daily earnings for micro-merchants.

These types of adjustments make new concepts feel familiar instead of foreign or complicated.

3. Visual localization: Pictures, icons and illustrations can make or break understanding, especially for users with low literacy. For example:

• Show a market stall, boda boda operator, or vegetable vendor when explaining mobile payments.
• Include a diverse range of icons representing both men and women, across different age groups and abilities.
• Use symbols that people instantly recognize when representing money, risk or security.

When visuals feel “local,” comprehension jumps.

4. Delivery channel localization: Even the best content won’t land if it’s delivered through an unsuitable channel. You have to meet people where they are. For example:

• Offer audio-first content for audiences with low basic literacy.
• Identify the most widely used information channels within a specific community to deliver content that effectively reaches the broadest audience.
• Couple digital delivery with offline delivery, integrating the DFS provider’s extensive network of agents that interact daily with users. 

Localization without reach is wasted effort.

5. Accessibility localization: Content needs to be made inclusive for all, regardless of literacy level, device type or digital experience.

For example:

• Break down tasks (like sending money or checking a balance) into simple, step-by-step screenshots.
• Design content that works on low-end smartphones or slow connections.
• Keep language simple and avoid jargon.

Accessibility is what ensures localization works for the most marginalized users – the ones who will benefit the most from more meaningful financial inclusion.

How organizations can put localization into practice

If you’re a DFS provider, development organization or NGO asking how to operationalize these insights, here are a few practical starting points:

1. Talk to real users. Understand their daily lives, languages, habits and financial pain points.
2. Co-create content with the people who will actually use it: Community groups, agents, women merchants’ associations, farmer groups and others.
3. Test and tweak. Don’t assume your first draft will work. Test it, gather feedback and refine.
4. Train your agents. They’re often the ones users rely on. Well-trained agents of both sexes can reinforce localized messages and help build trust.
5. Keep improving. Track what users understand, what confuses them, and what channels work best. Then refine your approach.

Improving digital financial literacy requires more than just a single video, poster or training. And it definitely needs to go beyond just generic content.  People need guidance that speaks their language – literally and culturally.

That’s why localization matters. It turns digital finance from intimidating to useful, supporting safer, more confident usage.  And ultimately, it can help new users translate digital financial access into improved resilience and the ability to plan for the future.