Digital Finance is the Anchor for Lifting Women in Crisis Times – A Future Lens

Persistent gender gaps continue, despite the great efforts made to tighten the disparities in education, employment, access to digitalisation and use of technology as well as access to banking and financial services. Yet, it is worth mentioning that these efforts have paid off and the gap is narrowing every year across regions.

The Global Gender Gap 2023 Report released by World Economic Forum reveals that, in the 146 countries covered, the gender gap in education now stands at 31.6%. According to International Labour Organization, the participation in the global labour force by women is just 47% compared to 72% of men, a points difference of 25 per cent. In terms of mobile ownership, the gender gap is wider in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). The 2024 GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report  indicates women are 8% less likely than men to own a mobile phone and 15% less likely to access the internet.  When it comes to ownership of an account at a formal financial institute, World Bank Global Findex Report 2021 suggests that 76% of adult population worldwide own an account in a bank, financial institute or a mobile money provider and men’s ownership stands at 78% while women own 4% less.

 

 

In times of crisis, women tend to bear the biggest share of hardships because they are being less resilient in terms of power imbalances, income and cultural barriers. Out of the eight billion people on earth, “Two billion women and girls worldwide lack access to any form of social protection, women in fragile contexts are 7.7 times more likely to live in extreme poverty compared to those in a non-fragile context. However, gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities are neglected in the aftermath”, according to the latest flagship report Harnessing Social Protection for Gender-Equality, Resilience and Transformation by UN Women (2024).

In Sudan, the available stats on financial inclusion go back to 2014, according to World Bank Findex database, the total account ownership rate is 15.3% (male: 20.2%; female: 10%). Over the last 10 years, various stakeholders have made efforts that resulted in increased ownership of bank accounts and usage of financial services. The World Bank has conducted a Financial Inclusion Survey using a nation-wide representative sample of 9.337 thousands out of a population of 45.7 million (50% men and 50% women). The survey has unveiled the following:

• The percentage of financially included segment that owns bank accounts is 15%. Another segment that is financially included using non-banking services is 61%, insurance services mainly medical insurance is the driver for services up-take (83% of the segment) followed by mobile money (18% of the segment), noting that there is an overlap between the two segments.
• Men represent 69% of the financially included people but 40% of the excluded; while women represent 63% of the financially included and 60% of the excluded. According to the survey, only 3% save in a formal institute (banks and non-banks Financial Institutes [FI]). Around 10% save informally and 87% do not save at all. The common informal saving products are livestock, gold, saving with another community member or saving group and purchase of land.

As of early 2023, the active mobile subscribers were numbered at 32.59 million, i.e. 68.6% of the total population while internet penetration stood at 28.4%. No publicly available data on mobile phone ownership per gender, however according to GSMA Gender Gap measures, the gender gap in mobile ownership in Sub-Saharan region is 13% and for mobile internet usage is 32%.

March 2025 marks the twenty third month into the war in Sudan that erupted on 15th April 2023 in the capital of Khartoum. It exploded suddenly and escalated quickly and expanded to other states; leading millions to flee their homes. The majority left everything behind including savings, formal identification documents and academic certificates. Some were truly scared, and others thought homes were more secure than roads on which they are traveling. According to UN Women, five million were forced to flee their homes during the first four months of the war, women represented 52% of this number.

Because of this, women are facing dire situations due to the loss of assets, savings, jobs and businesses;  or even worse, a loss of the breadwinner. They suddenly found themselves in front of challenges that threaten their families’ survival, and they lived through various challenging scenarios. Some managed to escape the conflict zones, finding refuge in safer states or, if fortunate, in another country. While only a few were able to resume their professional careers, others continued their businesses in a new country or even embarked on entirely new ventures. Majority, whether in conflict zones, internally displaced people (IDPs)/ refugees or new diaspora became totally dependent on financial support from family members and friends who are basically immigrants or diaspora most likely prior to the war.

Devastation has touched almost everything in the conflict zones; infrastructure like electricity and water facilities, schools, hospitals and health centres, government and private companies’ offices, banks’ headquarters and branches are no exception. The Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) has joined efforts with commercial banks to restore operations from the new capital, Port-Sudan and other safer states. They managed to restore customers’ balances and gradually some banking systems such as the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and Mobile Banking Apps. Despite the small percentage of the population who own bank accounts, it was beneficial for them, their families and neighbours. Relying on inward remittances coming mostly through the popular mobile banking app “Bankak“, provided by Bank of Khartoum; these remittances have helped women partially in meeting their survival needs and emergences. Over time and due to liquidity shortages, merchants accepted digital payments through Bankak. These two use cases; International Remittance and Digital Payment of Purchase have created a degree of awareness among the population around the importance of digital finance.

Priorly; fulfilling the requirements of opening a bank account was not easy. One developed solution was preloaded cards that require lighter KYC (Know Your Customer) standards; however, the cards’ adoption was limited. This move was followed by the introduction of Mobile Money services, which unfortunately were halted by the war. A recent move by CBOS is online bank accounts opening using an even lighter KYC requirement.

Well informed strategies and tactics are to be adopted to capitalise on the awareness created during the war and to address the wide gaps and needs of citizens post-conflict, particularly women. Some tips to be considered by service providers when providing financial products and services to women are:

• Segmentation: Women are participating in different domains, just to name few; agriculture, education, health, manufacturing, services, etc. They are varying in their levels of education, needs and income sources. Approach each segment using the appropriate language, tailored products and literacy programmes.
• Go to the Point: The mindsets of women tends to be more detail-oriented while also experiencing time constraints due to the various responsibilities they hold at home and work. Because of this, be sure to provide clear and precise information about the product/service flow, features, benefits, place, fees and how to get support when needed.
• Relieve the Burden: Women are attracted to solutions that solve more than one challenge and open more opportunities to gain experience.
• Build the Trust: The best approach is to get women to communicate with women to establish a trustful relationship with the financial service provider [FSP] (bank/non-bank).
• Learn the Targeted Segment Language: Women are already familiar with the financial concepts but do not know the financial terminologies, this creates a barrier for the use of the service.
• Give Women Phones: As figures show, women ownership of mobile phones and usage is less than men, culture is one reason and cost is another one. Offer bundled cost-effective handsets with offers would increase service up-take and usage.
• Speak and Listen to Existing Female Customers: Discuss current offerings, identify gaps, sensitise interests in new offerings.
• Safety Net Programmes: Utilise the safety net programmes that implement Cash Based Transfers (CBT) to send the assistance digitally. Women headed households increase post-conflict, digitising assistance disbursement is one way to extend digitisation to women.

Experiences over long years have proved granting women access to financial services empower them and increase their and their families’ resilience in both peace and conflict times and empower the community as a whole. Despite the sours of conflict times, opportunities emerged. Financial services providers and other stakeholders should be courages enough to tap into rather than opting out and averting risk.

 

By Manal Yassin

Digital Finance Consultant at IFC

Founding Member of Shomoul Fintech Association and DFI Community Member

A Survivor of Sudan 2023 War

 

Established in 2015, Digital Frontiers Institute is a proud brand of Digital Frontiers. Learn more about the Gender Equality Changemakers programme and find out how to enrol: https://genderequality.digitalfrontiersinstitute.org/