Understanding the Women’s Financial Inclusion Landscape in Africa

This year marked the official launch of FinEquity’s new regional community of practice in Africa. As we continue to grow as a community, we want to be sure that we understand and prioritize the areas that matter most for women’s financial inclusion in the region.

With this goal in mind, FinEquity’s 2023 Global Consultation was conducted to determine priority areas for collectively advancing progress on women's financial inclusion. An online survey was shared with the FinEquity community and through focus group discussions – including three that were held in Africa. The survey received 172 online responses, 20.9% of which were from Africa, and close to 200 participants from the continent joined the focus group discussions.

Women’s financial inclusion priorities in Africa

The results from individual respondents and focus group discussions in Africa yielded many similar results to the global findings, with some differences in priority sub-segments of women, as well as in women’s financial inclusion levers and delivery mechanisms. The following areas were ranked as the highest priorities for the region:

1. Climate change emerged as the top overarching priority area, especially as relates to women living in rural settings and working in agricultural livelihoods.
2. Digitization of informal finance was the highest ranked delivery mechanism for women’s financial inclusion in Africa, with a prominent question emerging on how to engage gatekeepers (e.g., men).
3. Two key questions were identified as priorities to magnify impact: (a) What is the impact of women's financial inclusion on access to basic services? and (b) How can we measure women’s economic empowerment in financial inclusion?
4. Women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (WMSMEs) was a priority sub-segment of women to target.
5. Leveraging gender-lens investing was ranked as a top incentive for women’s financial inclusion in the region.

FinEquity Africa’s new strategy

These findings have informed FinEquity Africa’s strategy for the period from July 2023 until June 2024. The following areas will be critical areas of focus for us during this time:

1. Assessing the gender and climate nexus in Africa: FinEquity Africa will explore the intersection between gender dynamics and climate change impacts in Africa by assessing the landscape of current events and developments on the continent and sharing findings through webinars and case studies.
2. Advancing the digitization of savings groups: The community will also identify gaps in the digitization of savings groups in Africa. We will establish a working group of representatives from various stakeholder groups and identify strategic partners who possess technical knowledge and resources to support the working group.
3. Supporting women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (WMSMEs) and gender-lens investing (GLI): The community will support best practices among stakeholders on gender-lens investing for WMSMEs by sharing curated knowledge through webinars and blogs.

We look forward to engaging and supporting the FinEquity Africa community in these areas, and we welcome you to reach out regarding any potential areas for collaboration.