Women, youths in MTN, FSDZ financial deal

MTN Zambia and the Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ) have entered into partnership to enhance financial inclusion among women and the youth in the country. The two organisations have since signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). FSDZ chief executive officer Betty Wilkinson said the MoU was aimed at addressing barriers to financial services for women and young people. Ms Wilkinson said the focus would be joint work with MTN mobile money under the women and youth and financial inclusion project. Financial inclusion, she said, was about transforming the lives of people for the better, especially the most vulnerable families . She was speaking during the signing ceremony in Lusaka. "At FSD Zambia, we want to enhance people's understanding of financial options so they can make their money work them. “We have taken keen interest in addressing the barriers that specificgroups of people, such as women and youth, face in accessing financial services that serve their needs,” she said. Ms Wilkinson said FSDZ was keen to support and improve mobile money access for youths in savings groups. MTN Zambia general manager mobile financial services, Edmund Barwuah, said mobile money was a versatile mobile banking platform that provided customers with the capability to perform various transactions. He said women and youth faced greatest barriers to access financial services hence MTN mobile money believe that building financial literacy and skills could remove barriers and help extend services to the unbanked sectors of society. Mr Barwuah said MTN currently had over 30 thousand mobile money agents actively trading all over the country. “This is clear to see that the mobile service provider has come a long way and is now the right moment to strengthen its cooperation and enhance its service delivery. “Allow me to highlight the priority areas of our partnership with FSD Zambia under the women and youths financial inclusion and capabilities initiative. We will work with FSD Zambia to improve awareness and usage of our digital platform for school payments,” he said.