Women targeted for assistance

Stakeholders needed to take more concrete steps to accelerate inclusion

The Denarau Accord was formalised yesterday with the gender gap being the main focus and women being the target for assistance.

Last year, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) received a mandate from its members to explore how the gender gap in financial inclusion can be addressed through effective regulations and policies. This was during the 2015 Global Policy Forum held in Maputo, Mozambique.

Partners, collaborators and stakeholders needed to take more concrete steps to accelerate women’s financial inclusion. Tukya Kankasa-Mabula, the deputy governor of the Bank of Zambia said: “Despite the progress that has been made to advance financial inclusion globally, women remain disproportionately excluded from the formal financial system.

“According to the 2014 Global Findex Data, 58 per cent of women had an account compared to 65 per cent of men.” She said there was a nine per cent gender gap in account ownership across developing economies.

“Despite overall progress towards financial inclusion, the nine per cent gender gap has remained constant since 2011,” she said. Ms Kankasa-Mabula said currently more than half of the world’s unbanked were women. Edited by Ranoba Baoa