The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has recently said that tailored financial services for the unbanked and underserved will help reduce the gender gap and transform financial services in the country.
During the Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ) conference for Women Financial Inclusion in Lusaka, Central Bank Deputy Governor in charge of administration, Tukiya Mabula Kankasa, stated that financial services specifically for the unbanked and underserved, was the essence of financial inclusion.
Dr Kankasa said doing so, would lead to narrowing the financial inclusion gender gap and the transformation of financing services to better serve the citizens, while noting that the financial inclusion gap, which is the difference in the level of access between women and men, persisted.
“Research on women’s access to financial services in Zambia have attributed the gender gap to factors such as cultural norms, low financial literacy, lack of collateral, legal barriers or discrimination against women and geographical constraints that limit access to financial services,” Dr Kankasa said.
The deputy governor commended the FSD Zambia and its researchers for providing cardinal data on financial inclusion and said the Central Bank had continued to put much emphasis on formal financial inclusion for women because doing so was the good the right thing to do.
In 2015, the financial inclusion gender gap was 3.8 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent in 2009 and four per cent in 2015, respectively.
