EFInA Wants Barriers to Financial Inclusion for Women Removed

Emmanuel Addeh, Folalumi Alaran and Aminat Hassan in Abuja

EFInA, a Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) organisation, yesterday moved to promote women’s access to financial services in the country as well as breaking the barriers to the gender’s financial inclusion.

In a panel hosted by the organisation at the ongoing Gender and Inclusion Summit 2024 sponsored by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and Policy Innovation Centre (PIC), EFInA stated that for the society to make progress there was the need to support women inclusion in the financial sector.

The session which was tagged: “Unpacking Access to Essential Tools and Services for Women’s Economic Empowerment -Collaborating for Sustainable Outcomes”, had World Bank’s Yetunde Fatogun, FSD’s Sophie Mills and Dr Chinonso Egemba as members.

Also on the panel were: Emezino Afiegbe from the Centre for Excellence, EFInA, Ifeanyi Nwokolo, Head, Business and Financial Inclusion at the FCMB as well as Aisha Hadejia, Partner , Sahel Consulting Agriculture and Nutrition Limited.

In her submission, Fatogun maintained that women needed to be given a voice when it comes to financial inclusion, stressing that when this is done, it will help address a number of other societal issues.

“When women are part of a group, they have more access to finance, they have access to markets, they have access to capital, they have access to even health insurance. And they also have access to social capital.

“They have where they feel they belong, where they can socialise, where they have voice and where they have agency. So I think it just further reinforces that it’s important that we do not neglect women, particularly women in the rural areas, that are in one group or the other.

“This is because that group serves as a platform to address other developmental challenges and other challenges that women face,” she stated.

Also speaking, Mills , who is the Gender Lead, FSD Network, argued that for a country’s financial system to work better, explicit attention must be paid to women.

“Our work is to make sure that the work that these organisations are doing includes being very intentional about gender. So, that means we can be working with the regulators, for example, to support them to understand how regulation impacts differently on men and women,” she stated.

She argued that things as basic as an identity card could be a huge problem for women, especially those who live in the rural areas, suggesting that there must be deliberate efforts to reduce these barriers.

“We know that women find it harder in some cases to get access to ID. There are still rural areas in many countries across the continent where it’s difficult for women to get ID,” she said.

Also speaking, EFInA’s Afiegbe , who leads the Gender Centre for Excellence in IFINA, said that to implement the women’s financial inclusion in Nigeria, stakeholders needed to agree on an actionable plan of action.

“So, what we’re trying to do is to get different actors, different experts, who are dealing with women issues. And see how they can work together,” he stressed .

Earlier, Egemba, popularly known as ‘Aproko doctor’ online, pointed out that for women to be able to make reasonable decisions about their bodies and career paths there was the need for massive enlightenment campaigns.