The State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023 published on Tuesday, April 18, revealed that Kenyan women recorded the highest number of mobile money account ownership.
Kenya led the nine countries under survey across the globe including Ghana, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Senegal.
According to the report, Kenyan women recorded the highest number compared to their counterparts in other countries due to living in urban areas.
"Women, who live in rural areas tend to experience the barriers to mobile money account ownership more acutely than their urban counterparts, including lower awareness, lack of a mobile phone, lower digital skills and more restrictive social norm," read part of the report.
In the report, 92 per cent of women owned a mobile money account in Kenya compared to only 4 per cent in Pakistan and India.
Kenya displayed the lowest gender gap of 2 per cent compared to the 85 per cent gap in Pakistan.
According to the report, the wide gap in Pakistan and India was due to a range of factors, including social norms and low mobile ownership among women.
It was detailed that Kenyan women especially farmers were able to access insurance after being left out of alternative sources of finances.
Furthermore, women in Kenya were more aware of mobile money compared to their counterparts in countries like India and Ethiopia.
"When women are aware of mobile money, barriers other than the lack of a mobile phone have created a relatively wide gender gap in mobile money account ownership (except in Kenya)," read the report in parts.
Meanwhile, while men and women have similar mobile money account usage in the first 30 days, the gap grows wider with more frequent usage.
Women were listed to use mobile money to send and receive remittance payments both domestically and internationally.
The report suggested that if no measures were taken, women's mobile ownership will continue to lag and prevent them from progressing along the mobile money user journey.
