National-wide, gender gap between men and women in accessing formal financial services and products has significantly narrowed, from 10 percent in 2017 to 3.6 percent in 2023.
The chairperson of the Women Affairs Committee for Financial Inclusion (WACFI), Ms. Beng’I Issa, said this when presenting a progress report of women financial inclusion to the National Council for Financial Inclusion (NCFI) meeting held on 25th March 2024 at the Bank of Tanzania head office in Dodoma.
She said financially included women were 73.4 percent compared with 77 percent financially included men, according to FinScope 2023.
“These results indicate the remarkable progress towards bridging the gender gap in Tanzania which were attributed by the strong collaboration between public and private sectors,” she told 20-plus members of the NCFI) under the chairmanship of Bank of Tanzania Governor Emmanuel Tutuba.
Despite the progress made WACFI identified three barriers that contribute to gender gap and limit women from accessing and using formal financial services, namely; limited access to title deeds and structures for acceptance of movable collateral, limited access to women-centric financial services and products, and inadequate financial literacy.
To address the challenges, WACFI recommends that the process of promulgating relevant laws for permitting or enabling movable assets to be used as collateral should be implemented and that a study on the landscape of women centric financial services and products be conducted to inform policy and product developments in the market.
On inadequate financial literacy, WACFI recommends that “financial sector regulators, financial service providers, and associations should collaborate in financial education programs.”
Ms. Beng’i Issa further called for continued implementation of the National Commission for Financial Inclusion-endorsed financial education program with a special focus on women financial literacy.
On top of the report, the NCFI, which is comprised of permanent secretaries from the Union and Zanzibar Governments responsible for Finance and Planning, Prime Minister’s Office (Social Security schemes), financial regulatory bodies, banks and mobile network operators, also discussed issued emanating from previous meetings.