This means that, despite encompassing less than 20% of the total population, the rural sector accounts for a third of the region's poor and almost half of its extremely poor. Disparities between urban and rural areas also manifest themselves in other dimensions of well-being, such as health, education and social protection (ECLAC/FAO/IICA, 2015). In view of this, financial inclusion is a tool with the potential to contribute to the inclusive transformation of the rural environment (IFC, 2011 and 2012, IFAD, 2009,2016a, 2016b and 2016c, Kloeppinger-Todd and Sharma, 2010, Timmer, 2009, Vargas Hill and Torero, 2009).