Studies have highlighted the important role of financial technology (fintech) in enhancing socio-economic conditions of nations. However, despite the efforts of governments to improve the latter, the rating of African countries still remains manifestly inadequate. Given that access to electricity is imperative for fintech, and fundamental to improving socioeconomic conditions, we provide novel evidence by investigating the degree to which the prevailing energy poverty in Africa mediates the relationship between the duo. Our baseline results confirm that fintech has a significant positive impact on socioeconomic conditions, proxied by human development, and the impact becomes increasingly significant in the face of constant energy supply. However, when we split our sample based on regions and income classification proposed by the World Bank, our results show that the impact of fintech on human development, in the absence of access to electricity, is notably limited to some African regions. Considering the current state of human development in Africa, our study advocates for more investment in energy infrastructure for the rapid realization of the gains of fintech.

研究强调了金融技术（fintech）在改善国家社会经济条件方面的重要作用。然而，尽管各国政府努力改善后者，但非洲国家的评级仍然明显不足。鉴于获得电力对于金融科技至关重要，并且对于改善社会经济条件至关重要，我们通过调查非洲普遍存在的能源贫困在多大程度上调节了两者之间的关系，提供了新的证据。我们的基线结果证实，金融科技对人类发展所代表的社会经济条件具有显着的积极影响，并且在面对持续的能源供应时，这种影响变得越来越显着。然而，当我们根据世界银行提出的地区和收入分类划分样本时，我们的结果表明，在没有电力的情况下，金融科技对人类发展的影响明显限于一些非洲地区。考虑到非洲人类发展现状，我们的研究主张加大对能源基础设施的投资，以快速实现金融科技的收益。