Advancing African Women’s Financial Inclusion

This policy brief offers African policy makers and other stakeholders a set of policy recommendations to advance African women’s financial inclusion. It calls for looking broadly across financial markets and client segments at the full range of products that can be delivered by sound, responsible, and effective financial service providers. The brief identifies demand-side and supply-side constraints to financial access faced by African women and also explores opportunities available in expanding access to finance. Policy recommendations provided in the brief include:

• Build awareness among policymakers and other stakeholders about the financial needs of women in different market segments, bringing women leaders into policy dialog;
• Modify legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks, removing difficulties and allowing space for innovation towards greater financial inclusion for African women;
• Strengthen consumer protection regulation that addresses the concerns and issues of women clients;
• Invest in financial capability programs for women, reinforcing the ability of African women to act as informed and educated financial consumers;
• Invest in more gender disaggregated data collection and analysis for use by multiple stakeholders;
• Conduct policy research and market research to fill knowledge and information gaps using a gender lens.