This review examines how digital financial inclusion affects access to financial services and
resilience among micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging economies. It
compares India with Kenya, Nigeria, and Indonesia; rural with urban firms; microenterprises
with larger enterprises; and traditional banking with digital financial services. A bounded,
PRISMA-guided search produced 200 relevance-ranked academic records from four
predefined search blocks and 11 institutional reports. After deduplication and screening, 39
sources published between 2016 and September 2026 were included: 28 peer-reviewed
studies and 11 institutional reports. Eight related themes emerged: formal credit, digital
payments, financial and digital literacy, trust and cybersecurity, infrastructure, government
support, business resilience, and gender and regional inequality. Digital payments produced
the most consistent immediate benefit by reducing transaction friction and supporting sales,
supplier payments, and cash-flow visibility. However, credit access did not follow
automatically and continued to depend on documentation, risk models, and formal records.
Literacy, connectivity, perceived security, and regulatory support influenced the conversion
of access into productive use. The resilience effect was strongest when digital finance formed
part of a broader capability set that included savings, access to working capital, digital records,
and multiple sales channels. Policy should therefore move beyond account opening and
payment adoption towards responsible data-based lending, interoperable systems, effective
consumer protection, and targeted capability support for rural, women-owned, and
microenterprises