Mobile money penetration has been described as one of the keys to improving financial literacy among women.
Debola Osibogun, president, Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative (CAFEi), said this in her piece titled, ‘Bridging the Financial Literacy Gap in Nigeria’, written to commemorate women’s day.
She said while the adult literacy rate in Nigeria is 62 percent, mobile phone penetration rate is 87 percent, reinforcing that individuals need only a basic education to make use of phones.
“Therefore, driving the mobile money penetration will not only make banking services accessible to these women, but also empower them to take charge of their personal finances through subscription of mobile money without having to leave their local communities in search of a bank,” she said.
Financial services innovation will also be a major enabler to improving financial literacy for all, she said, pointing out that leveraging digital technology to create financial management is one way this can be leveraged to improve financial literacy.
Involvement of non-banking financial services institutions such as insurance, asset management, pension fund administrators etc.is also key to improving financial literacy, Osibogun said.
Despite the increasing representation of females in financial services leadership, recent studies suggest that female financial inclusion is rising slower than males, with 36 percent of women still financially excluded compared to 24 percent of men – putting the current financial inclusion gender gap at around 12 percent.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) formulated the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) in 2012 with the mandate to reduce the level of financial exclusion from around 46% in 2010 to 20% by 2020.
Osibogun noted that efforts to achieve a higher rate of financial literacy for unbanked females in Nigeria have mainly been driven by partnerships between regulators and developmental finance institutions.
There is a lot to gain economically from the improved financial literacy of women either through increased financial inclusion or economic activity from the increased number of financial transactions that will follow, she said.
“There must be a deliberate and measurable effort to continuously engage women throughout the various seasons of life so that they are always able to make the best and most informed decisions regarding their finances and well-being. Only when this is achieved can the financial literacy gap begin to tighten, and it can be said that Generation Equality has been achieved”.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
