The Closing of the Mobile Money Gender Gap in Rwanda

According to Rwanda FinScope 2024, 92% of Rwandan adults (approximately 7.5 million people) have or use a formal financial product or service, up from 77% in 2020. A key driver of this increase has been the uptake of transactional accounts, and more specifically mobile money wallets. According to the FinScope survey, 5.8 million adults have a mobile money wallet in their name. There is, however, a gender gap - with 72% of women using mobile money compared to 81% of their male counterparts. 

From demand-side to supply-side data for financial inclusion

Nationally representative surveys, such as FinScope, offer valuable insights into financial access, including access to informal financial services, as well as perceptions of and trust in financial service providers. However, like all large-scale surveys, they are costly to conduct and so are typically administered infrequently (every four years). Additionally, these surveys are susceptible to various errors and biases, including recall bias. As a result, using surveys to track transaction usage patterns, especially for high-frequency products like mobile money wallets, is not feasible. Supply-side data, gathered directly from financial service providers can complement survey data and bridge this gap. 

The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has implemented an Electronic Data Warehouse to house supply-side data collected from regulated financial institutions. This dataset enables near real-time tracking of financial inclusion trends and mobile money usage behaviors. The NBR has provided access to some of this data, updated on a weekly basis, through the NBR Financial Inclusion Dashboard. 

Who are the active mobile money users?

Based on this data, as of the first week of May 2025 there are a total of 5.73 million mobile money wallet holders, or 66% of the adult population aged 16 and above. This matches closely to the FinScope number of adults with a registered mobile wallet in their name (5.8 million). Just under half of these account holders (2.7 million or 47%) are female. 

Beyond account holders, the data also enables a view of active mobile money users – defined as those who have either received or initiated a transaction on their mobile money wallet over a three-month period. A recent analysis of this data indicates that a total of 4.4 million Rwandans (or 56% of the adult population age 16 and over) were active mobile money users in the three-month period between August and October 2024. The chart below segments these active mobile money users based on their gender and age as per the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) data collected on account registration. Similar to account holders, just under half of these active users (47%) are female. 

The growth of mobile money since 2019

Mobile money usage saw a notable increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, initially fueled by fee waivers. It has continued to grow as users have recognized the advantages of transacting digitally. In 2019, there were 3 million active mobile money users. By 2024, this number had grown to 4.4 million, an increase of 47% (almost 8% per annum).

The fastest growth came from previously underserved segments, with the number of registered women active on mobile money growing by 60% over the period compared to a 39% increase in male users. Women below the age of 35 have experienced the fastest growth, increasing by 62% over the period.

First-time mobile money users

To better understand mobile money usage patterns, we tracked a cohort of 59,500 individuals who made their first mobile money transaction in April 2023. This group of first-time users was varied: just over half (52%) were women, and 70% were under 35 years old. 

One year later, in April 2024, the team analyzed these users’ transaction habits, focusing on diversity - defined as the number of distinct digital transaction types (e.g., payments, transfers, airtime purchases, etc.) each subscriber initiated. The idea is simple: the more varied a user’s transactions, the deeper their engagement with digital financial tools.  Below, we present the results for this cohort, segmented by gender and age.
 

The analysis indicates that:

• Men below the age of 35 are the most likely to become high-diversity mobile money users (making five or more different digital payment types) within a year. Of this segment who used mobile money for the first time in April 2023, one third were high-diversity users a year later
• Women below the age of 35 also showed rapid uptake, with 22% becoming high-diversity users within a year
• Users over 35 were more likely to drop out or remain low-diversity users, using mobile money mainly for receiving transfers or making just one or two types of transactions

Challenges in mobile money data accuracy

Mobile money transaction data enables near-real-time monitoring of uptake and usage trends at very low cost. However, like survey data, mobile money transactions data - and supply-side data in general - has limitations. The gender and age analysis of transactions data relies on Know-Your-Customer (KYC) data collected during registration. This presumes that the person using the account is the same person who registered that account. This is not always so. 

The mobile money gender gap is closing in Rwanda

While no single dataset is perfect, combining traditional survey data like FinScope with supply-side data strengthens our understanding and helps validate key trends. In the case of financial inclusion and the gender gap, both FinScope and supply side data are telling us the same thing. More adults are included, and the gender gap in both access and usage is closing.