Nigerian men accounted for 72 percent of the total volume of electronic payments compared to the 28 percent recorded for women in 2020, according to a report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
This means that male users were more active and responsible for nearly three times the amount of e-payment made by their female counterparts. The report showed that the volume for male users grew to 1.3 billion in 2020 from 830 million in 2019. Female users saw volume grow to 520 million from 303.1 million in 2019.
Men also received more from electronic payments than women did in the same period. According to the report, the male received N1.37 billion in 2020 which represents about 40 percent of the figure recorded in 2019 at 795.5 million. Females accounted for 684.9 million in 2020 over 50 percent growth from 2019 when they got 390.8 million through electronic payments.
There are more women reportedly on the lower end of the financial inclusion radar. Financially excluded individuals are defined as those in the Nigerian population over 18 years of age who do not have or use any financial products or services, whether formal or informal.
In 2019, a report by the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFINA) noted that while financial inclusion is increasing for both men and women, the gender gap is widening. In the NIBSS report, female electronic payment payers grew by only one percentage point whereas the men payers grew by nearly 40 percent.
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“The gender gap in Nigeria represents a major issue to be resolved if the country is to achieve the targets it set in its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS),” EFINA said.
The main drivers of financial inclusion are lack of income, lack of education, and low trust in Financial Service Providers (FSPS).
In 2016, while Nigeria’s population was estimated to be 193 million people compared to about 187 million in 2015, women and men constituted 49.2 percent and 50.8 percent of this population respectively.
Men also dominate in access to education. The literacy rate among young women and men age 15-24 years in 2017 was 59.3 percent and 70.9 percent respectively. The net enrolment rate at the primary school level is 56 percent for girls and 61 percent for boys. The gender gap for completion widens from 9 percent in primary school to 14 percent in secondary school.
One of the reasons for the educational gap is cultures that prioritises the education of the boy-child compared to the girl-child. EFINA notes that such perceptions mean girls are left to focus on home chores while the boys go to school. This places a limit on girls’ capacity to regularly attend classes or pursue gainful employment outside of the home. Restricted access to education also impedes women’s access to highquality, well-paying jobs.
The COVID-19 pandemic also affected women’s income as many of them were rendered redundant and could have played a role in the slow growth the gender made in electronic payment. The female unemployment rate in Nigeria as of the fourth quarter of 2020 increased to 35.2 percent from 31.6 percent recorded in the second quarter of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
The report also showed that a total of 61.63 million women were in the working population (15-64 years of age) as of the last quarter of 2020 accounting for 50.5 percent of the total working population. However, only 30.15 million of the women are actually working, representing about 43.3 percent of the total labour force in the period under review.
