This blog series was written as part of GIZ’s Governance of Digital Finance project.

Women across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are driving economic growth, with women-led businesses contributing approximately 13% to Africa’s total GDP. Digital financial services (DFS) play a key role in supporting their contributions. However, several challenges continue to hinder their full engagement with DFS. This blog series explores the unique experiences of women with DFS, offering insights and actionable recommendations to close the gap and ensure DFS becomes an empowering tool for women’s financial independence and business success. Below is an overview of three blogs in the series:

1. Why are more African women not making use of digital financial services?

While more women now have access to the tools necessary to use digital financial services, such as mobile phones and IDs, we find that many of them are yet to do so. This blog delves into the latest Findex report and digital connectivity tracker, analysing the reasons behind this trend before concluding with what needs to be done to effectively close this gap.

Read the full blog here.

2. Why are women more vulnerable to risk in digital financial services?

Women face heightened risks when it comes to digital financial services, from cyber threats to financial exclusion. In this blog, we examine why these risks are more pronounced for women, leveraging insights and the critical role that regulators can play in addressing these vulnerabilities. Learn about the policy interventions needed to make DFS safer and more accessible for women.

Read the full blog here.

3. Risk and Reality: Digital Financial Services for women cross-border traders

In this blog, we focus on women cross-border traders in the Southern African Development Community region (SADC), revealing the pain points they experience in accessing and using financial services. Drawing from our research, we explore how DFS can be tailored to better meet the needs of women in cross-border trade, allowing them to thrive in their businesses.

Read the full blog here.

Key insights from the series

Across the blog series, we’ve identified the following cross-cutting themes:

• Affordability: High cost and affordability concerns continue to block DFS usage for women in SSA.
• Social and cultural barriers: Gender norms and cultural restrictions limit women’s ability to own accounts and use DFS effectively.
• Financial and digital literacy: Low levels of literacy make women less confident in using DFS, pushing them to rely on cash and increasing their vulnerability to risks.

The way forward

Empowering women through DFS means meeting women where they are by designing products that cater to their unique needs and using gender-disaggregated data to create targeted solutions from a product and consumer outcomes perspective. Additionally, there is a need to address regulatory and societal gender norms along with advancing digital and financial literacy among women. Doing so will ensure that DFS can truly become an enabler of financial autonomy and empowerment for women.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners at GIZ for their invaluable support in making this blog series a reality.