Putting Women at the centre of Financial Inclusion

If we want to get serious about financial inclusion, we need to put women at the centre

By Tingting Peng, Chief Capital, Strategy and Impact Officer at Moove 

Despite efforts in recent years, we are still a long way from achieving true financial inclusion. Around 1.7 billion people globally don’t have a bank account. For gig workers in particular, of which there are 1.1 billion globally, around half are denied access to financial services, leaving them at the bottom of the pyramid.

This widespread lack of access to credit and banking services leads to a phenomenon called ‘credit invisibility’. This is inhibiting billions of people around the world from starting businesses, buying homes or investing in their education. It’s also holding people back from employment opportunities. For instance, mobility entrepreneurs, gig workers who provide services for mobility platforms, can’t access financing for their own vehicles, limiting their earning potential and productivity. 

But as is usually the case, the lack of access to financial services is even worse for women. In 2021, the majority of unbanked adults were women, whilst according to WEF, 80% of women-owned businesses with credit needs are unserved or under-served. Research by the international charity CARE found that giving women better access to finance could unlock $330 billion in annual global revenue. 

Empowering women to reach financial inclusion 

When women contribute to the economy it makes countries richer. The UN finds that gender pay gaps can cost a country’s economy around 15% of GDP.

Not only this, but companies that have employment and leadership opportunities for women benefit from increased organisational effectiveness and growth. This is why empowering women in the economy and closing gender gaps are part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Fintech is integral to closing the gap between who has access to financial services and who doesn’t. In regions where mobile payments have been embraced, so has financial inclusion. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, mobile money account ownership has risen from 12% in 2010 to 21% today. Early signs point to mobile money accounts even helping to close the gender pay gap.  

But it's not as easy bolting a digital process onto a previously analogue one or introducing a shiny new app, without making fundamental changes to the way a system works. If you want to create products that empower women, then women themselves need to be brought into the development process. For instance, a few years ago the rollout of Apple’s credit card led to multiple complaints that the algorithms were inherently biased against women, as it gave them lower credit limits compared to men. This was not only a PR mishap for the company but also damaging for its relationship with 50% of its customer base, at a time when it was looking to move further into financial services. When building a product which is focused on financial inclusion, steps must be taken to prevent any issues like this because it is incredibly important to build trust with customers straight away. 

Can fintech close the financial gender gap? 

Fintech is yet to close the financial gender gap and improve financial inclusion once and for all, but it is making progress. Research by the World Bank found that while 29% of men surveyed use fintech, only 21% of women do. In particular, it found that women can be less willing to adopt new applications and share their personal data. It's important that financial institutions, whether fintech or legacy businesses, ensure that women are a central focus for their outreach and product design in order to win their trust, build their confidence, and empower them for the future. 

This is something we focused on when designing our products at Moove, a global mobility fintech that is democratising access to financial services for mobility entrepreneurs. In the three years we’ve been operating as a company, we’ve been able to positively impact the lives of nearly 35,000 people.

Women have traditionally been excluded from mobility gig opportunities, despite them being reliable and flexible. In particular, for women, it is possible to fit earning opportunities around caring for children or elderly relatives - something that women are still disproportionately responsible for because of entrenched stereotypes, lower levels of education and fewer economic opportunities. 

We want to improve the number of women who are able to participate in the mobility workforce. We focus on female-centric product design, flexible working hours, easy access to credit, and e-banking through our wallet. We also provide customers with vehicle and health insurance. The female customers we do have at Moove have found that the flexibility of our product works for them in particular and it’s helping them to improve their lives as well as support them on the road to achieving financial freedom. 

But there is still much more to be done. As we expand as a business, from our roots in Africa to other continents across the world, we want to lead by example - 34% of our global employees are women and 57% of our leadership team are women. This helps inform our decision-making and ensures we’re committed to introducing services that meet the needs of women and allows them to grow their own businesses. 

Centering women’s needs to enable financial freedom 

At Moove we strive to increase female capacity for earning and provide increased access to digital and financial services, not just because we made a commitment to do so but also because it makes economic sense. If women participated in the economy identically to men, it is projected that this would increase the annual global GDP by 26% in 2025. 

There is a long way to go to achieve this goal. But by taking steps to hire female leadership, with over 50% of senior leadership figures, and integrate elements to products that specifically serve the needs of women, we can make sure change happens from the top and drive this mission forward, one step at a time. 

Tingting Peng is Chief Capital, Strategy and Impact Officer at Moove, the world’s first mobility fintech, which provides revenue-based financing and financial services to mobility entrepreneurs.