financial inclusion Archives - AfricaBusiness.com

By Saviour Chibiya, Chief Executive of Absa Regional Operations (ARO) Access to financial services in Africa had for decades been defined by disparities—between rural and urban areas, between men and women, between small businesses and larger enterprises. It meant that millions, especially the continent’s most vulnerable populations, were excluded from the formal economy, curbing entrepreneurship, restricting access to credit, and stifling upward financial mobility for far too long. But by the turn of the millennium, change was afoot. Early web pioneers like Ghanaian professor Nii Quaynor, often hailed as "Africa’s father of the internet", were busy laying the groundwork for the continent's foundational online infrastructure. In 1994, Quaynor introduced Ghana’s first internet service ...

By Kairi Brand, Head of Talent Management, Admirals While financial inclusion is growing in importance worldwide there is still a discrepancy between male and female financial inclusion – the so-called gender financial inclusion gap. At a global level, the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Report estimates it will take an average of 132 years to achieve gender equality globally! The African continent is no exception. It appears that there are several reasons for this. In many African societies, it is men who handle the financial affairs in a family, with the woman managing the household and caring for children. Women in emerging African economies also often have lower financial literacy levels on account of lower levels of education. Moreover, in some countries, legal and re...

Tag: financial inclusion

Digitisation as Africa’s Great Equaliser in Financial Services

The gender financial inclusion gap in Africa