The Barefoot Economist
Hugo PachecoGround-level intelligence on financial inclusion technology and emerging market fintech written by someone who's built agent networks across 9 African countries, not watched from a distance. Home of the Agent Network OS.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 114 | Founded | 2 years ago | Last Issue | 18 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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barefooteconomist.substack.comLatest Issues
🔒 De-risking is not development: the credit guarantee question Africa cannot avoid
Last month, I introduced a mobile money lender to a European crowdfunding platform. The lender was not weak. Annualised portfolio yield: 100%. Risk-adjusted NIM: 65%. Another platform had just doubled its commitment from €500k to €1M beca...
🌾 The agri supply chain has an agent network problem. So does agri lending. They’re the same problem.
Most agri aggregators don’t have a credit problem. They have an auditable evidence problem. The physical proof of trade already exists at the hub: weight, quality, and delivery confirmation. But because the payment trigger sits outside that...
💵 Cash is a mature category. Financial inclusion isn’t.
TL;DR
Cash is not old tech waiting to be replaced. It is the most mature category in the market familiar, trusted, final, and universally legible. Digital finance is an immature category in most African markets. The proof: 75% of mob...
🧭 The sector has the data. It never had the question. Two years later, I built one.
24 scored questions. One bottleneck. The conversation your 15-min call never had time to finish.
Two years ago this month, I started writing The Barefoot Economist.
🪦 Mobile money moved $2.1 trillion. Earned $21/User/Year. The graveyard explains the gap.
The GSMA just confirmed what this series has been arguing from the field. $2.1 trillion in flows. $21 per active user per year. The business model gap and who's already in the graveyard because of it.
The GSMA released its State of the Ind...
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The writers behind this newsletter.
I help fintechs to reach last-mile customers using alternative channels
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