VP calls for promotion of women financial inclusion

“Female in-built attributes like low education, low ownership to assets and lack of decision making powers in households especially on issues related to finance, deprive their ability to access and use modern financial services,” she said.

Vice-President made the remarks in Dar es Salaam during the high level conference on women and financial inclusion organised jointly by Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and Bank of Tanzania (BoT).

Even with the widespread use of mobile money, women are more on the receiving than sending end of mobile money, the situation that partly explains the dependency and poverty level, she said.

According to 2014 Financial Capability Survey, over 60 per cent of women particularly in the rural areas are less informed of money matters. Practically, women have mostly relied on informal financial service providers like informal groups, friends and relatives.

“This requires a need for much deeper analysis of gender disaggregated statistics in financial services for adequate intervention to address the gap,” she said.

She commended AFI for the ongoing efforts to improve financial inclusion among women. It is high time that special attention be given to women to enable them exploit potentials hidden in them for faster economic growth and poverty alleviation.

On his part, the BoT Governor, Prof Benno Ndulu, said bringing closer access to financial services, particularly to women has been of top priorities. And there are ongoing efforts geared at making more women benefit from the fast growing financial sector.

He said BoT has partnered with AFI in ensuring that financial inclusion is promoted especially for more women having accessibility to various financial products with an ultimate goal of lifting them from abject poverty.

SOURCE: DAILY NEWS

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