Women are ready and experienced in financial transactions but have lower rates of inclusion in formal financial services compared to men in most countries. Closing the gender gap will require tapping into women's readiness and potential as a large market of experienced financial transactors to bring more women into formal finance at a faster rate than men. Over 570 million women across these countries remain financially excluded despite being literate and having necessary documents for inclusion.

1. Providing Perspective:
Closing the Gender Gap
2016
2015: Women’s readiness for financial and digital inclusion
(Shown: Percentage of women, by readiness factor)
Women are ready, have market potential and are experienced financial transactors
Closing the gender gap
Closing the gender gap requires interventions
that bring more women into formal financial
services at a faster rate than that of men.
More women were financially included in 2015
than in 2014 across most FII countries. But,
the rate of financial services adoption among
women is at par or slower than that of men
in most countries, resulting in a stagnant or
growing gender gap.
Women are ready
Many women are equipped with the necessary skills and tools to be financially included. Some FII
countries have successfully expanded the digital inclusion of women through mobile money. Others
have yet to tap into their potential for financial and digital inclusion.
Closing the gender gap will require successfully tapping into women’s readiness for financial services
and using it to increase registered use.
Financially excluded women are an immense market
2015: Financial activities by types of financial services
(Shown: Women who save and borrow through formal or informal means)
Women are experienced financial transactors
Many women are seasoned savers and borrowers, relying heavily on informal services. A push for
greater awareness and access has the potential to nudge millions of financially excluded women into
formal finance.
The next leap forward is to make formal financial services relevant to this large market of
financially excluded women by capitalizing on their experience, potential and readiness.
55%
Ready for digital inclusion
65%
included
74%
Ready for inclusion
65%
included
Kenya Nigeria Tanzania Uganda
Bangladesh India Indonesia Pakistan
Ready for financial inclusion: Individuals who are literate or numerate and have an ID
Ready for digital inclusion: Individuals who are literate or numerate, have an ID, have mobile phone access, and are capable of sending or receiving SMS (text messages)
56%
Ready for digital inclusion
28%
included
72%
Ready for inclusion
30%
included
66%
Ready for digital inclusion
58%
included
86%
Ready for inclusion
58%
included
31%
Ready for digital inclusion
31%
included
66%
Ready for inclusion
32%
included
27%
Ready for digital inclusion
12%
included
96%
Ready for inclusion
38%
included
27%
Ready for digital inclusion
43%
included
91%
Ready for inclusion
61%
included
64%
Ready for digital inclusion
20%
included
98%
Ready for inclusion
21%
included
23%
Ready for digital inclusion
5%
included
85%
Ready for inclusion
6%
included
85
million in
Pakistan
242
million in
India 101
million in
Indonesia 61
million in
Nigeria
49
million in
Bangladesh 13
million in
Uganda
11
million in
Tanzania
8
million in
Kenya
19% of all
Indians
40% of all
Indonesians
46% of all
Pakistanis
34% of all
Nigerians
31% of all
Bangladeshis
34% of all
Ugandans
21% of all
Tanzanians
18% of all
Kenyans
More than
570 million
women
are financially
excluded
across the
FII countries*
BorrowSaveBorrowSaveBorrowSaveBorrowSaveBorrowSaveBorrowSaveBorrowSaveBorrowSave
36%
India Uganda Indonesia Kenya Nigeria Pakistan Tanzania Bangladesh
43% 55% 52%
53%
48%
31%
46%
29%
21%
64%
21%
25%
13%
14%
4%
4%
27%
22%
7%
3%17%
6%
19%
1%1% 2%2%
0.9%
20%
9%
6%
12%
18%
24%
4%
9%
8%
13%
4%
4%
9%
10%
7%
5%
11%
39%
61%
32%
21%
65%
30%
58%
38%
6%
0.3%
n Informal financial services n Both formal and informal financial services
n Formal financial services n Financially included
2014 2015
n Men n Women n Gender gap
Gender gap decreasing Gender gap increasing
Gender gap–no change
Kenya
-7
-11
Tanzania
-9
Uganda
-13
Nigeria
-12
India
-8
Pakistan
-7
Indonesia
Bangladesh
-3
OpportunityChallenge
-7
-9
-15
-10
-8
-5
-7
Source: InterMedia FII Tracker surveys; 2014, 2015.
Percentage of total
population, by country
43%
34%
47%
32%
2015
2014
69%
62%
72%
65%
2015
2014
56%
45%
67%
58% 2015
2014
50%
37%
44%
30%
2015
2014
38%
35%
48%
38%
2015
2014
60%
48%
69%
61%
2015
2014
11%
3%
11%
6%
2015
2014
27%
20%
28%
21%
2015
2014
Financial inclusion, by gender
-14
*Population counts based on World Bank statistics, 2014