Is M-PESA a Model for Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment in Kenya?

2015 ◽  
pp. 101-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Violet N. Barasa ◽  
Charles Lugo
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Mobile Banking ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
The Impact

Since the 1980s, the gender gap in most countries—rich and developing—has been narrowing. Women and girls are going to school more, living longer, getting better jobs, and acquiring legal rights and protections. Despite these strides, women in poor rural communities remain financially excluded from formal financial services. This chapter explores the impact of mobile banking on financial inclusion and women's empowerment in Kenya. The aim is to evaluate whether mobile banking is a form of financial inclusion and women's financial empowerment in Kenya. Firstly, it gives a clear background of a form of mobile banking in Kenya locally called M-PESA. Secondly, it evaluates how M-PESA is a form financial inclusion. Thirdly, it examines if M-PESA is a form of financial empowerment for women and girls in Kenya and lastly, offers recommendations on how M-PESA can effectively become a mode of financial inclusion and women's empowerment in Kenya.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Impact of Mobile Banking in Financial Inclusion Among the Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Ummahani Akter ◽  
S. M. Rakibul Anwar ◽  
Riduanul Mustafa ◽  
Zulfiqure Ali
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Bandwidth Allocation ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mobile Banking ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
The Impact

Financial inclusion ensures financial products and services at reasonable rates for individuals and aims to introduce unbanked people into banking and financial services. The study aims to explore the effect that mobile banking facilities have on financial inclusion in 17 developing countries. From 2011 to 2017, this study took data from the three dimensions of financial inclusion called "Penetration," "Access," and "Uses". This paper took the Sarma model of Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) to measure financial inclusion. This paper incorporates mobile money accounts as a "penetration" variable and Mobile banking outlet as an "Access" variable with existing model variables to quantify the effect of mobile banking. This research finds that mobile banking positively impacts the selected countries, though the degree of the changes is not symmetric. African regional countries have improved their financial inclusion after introducing mobile banking much better compared to other regions. This study is limited to examining mobile banking effects on selected emerging countries only. Future research may be devoted to developing more innovative strategies and tools to reach out to unbanked people, including people who face disparities in mobile phone ownership and bandwidth allocation.

scholarly journals Islamic Finance and Empowerment of Women: A Case Study of Pakistan

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Shah Nawaz Shaikh ◽  
Azam Ali
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Islamic Finance ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Islamic Financial Institutions ◽  
The Impact

United Nation set seventeen Sustainable Development Goals for all its member countries to achieve them by 2030. Pakistan is also a member of UN and is required to achieve these SDGs by 2030. Literature on SDGs pointed out that Pakistan is working on these goals especially on 05 basic goals i.e. Education, Health, Poverty, clean water &sanitary and Gender equality. One of the SDGs addresses the Gender Equality with focus on women empowerment. There found some hurdles i.e. environment, financial and religious in achieving these and other goals. Islamic financial institutions are not playing expected role in empowering people especially females to achieve these goals. This study discusses the gender gap in accordance with Sharia and analyzes the women empowerment through Islamic Finance. For this, the study provides brief discussion on Islamic thoughts on the gender gap and Women’s empowerment and examines how women can be empowered through Islamic Financial Institutions. The data for the study is qualitative in natures and acquired through survey questionnaire. The research question set for the study is ‘By how IFIs fulfill the needs in terms of equal opportunities for women, and to analyze the impact of IFIs environment on women’s empowerment, if a country establishes an IFI in its territory either for students, bank’s employees, religious women who are engaged in Madrasas or households. The findings of the analysis interpret that, women empowerment leads gender equality if regulator help IFIs to mitigate the problems and hurdles come under way. The establishment of separate IFI for women with the development of specific rules for betterment of women may help women to get jobs that also comprise the female Sharia scholars in Sharia board, consequently increased the numbers of women in banking industry.

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Microfinance - A Case of Rural Bangladesh

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Saida Parvin
Keyword(s):  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Case Study Method ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Donor Agencies ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.

Women’s Education May Be Even Better Than We Thought: Estimating the Gains from Education When Schooling Ain’t Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Kaffenberger ◽  
Lant Pritchett
Keyword(s):  
Child Mortality ◽  
Women's Education ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Primary Schooling ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Financial Practices ◽  
Attenuation Bias

Women’s schooling has long been regarded as one of the best investments in development. Using two different cross-nationally comparable data sets which both contain measures of schooling, assessments of literacy, and life outcomes for more than 50 countries, we show the association of women’s education (defined as schooling and the acquisition of literacy) with four life outcomes (fertility, child mortality, empowerment, and financial practices) is much larger than the standard estimates of the gains from schooling alone. First, estimates of the association of outcomes with schooling alone cannot distinguish between the association of outcomes with schooling that actually produces increased learning and schooling that does not. Second, typical estimates do not address attenuation bias from measurement error. Using the new data on literacy to partially address these deficiencies, we find that the associations of women’s basic education (completing primary schooling and attaining literacy) with child mortality, fertility, women’s empowerment and the associations of men’s and women’s basic education with positive financial practices are three to five times larger than standard estimates. For instance, our country aggregated OLS estimate of the association of women’s empowerment with primary schooling versus no schooling is 0.15 of a standard deviation of the index, but the estimated association for women with primary schooling and literacy, using IV to correct for attenuation bias, is 0.68, 4.6 times bigger. Our findings raise two conceptual points. First, if the causal pathway through which schooling affects life outcomes is, even partially, through learning then estimates of the impact of schooling will underestimate the impact of education. Second, decisions about how to invest to improve life outcomes necessarily depend on estimates of the relative impacts and relative costs of schooling (e.g., grade completion) versus learning (e.g., literacy) on life outcomes. Our results do share the limitation of all previous observational results that the associations cannot be given causal interpretation and much more work will be needed to be able to make reliable claims about causal pathways.

scholarly journals Assessing the impact of a combined nutrition counselling and cash transfer intervention on women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh: a randomised control trial protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e044263
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K Kirkwood ◽  
Michael John Dibley ◽  
John Frederick Hoddinott ◽  
Tanvir Huda ◽  
Tracey Lea Laba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Randomised Control Trial ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Rural Bangladesh ◽  
Nutrition Counselling ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Unconditional Cash Transfer

IntroductionThere is growing interest in assessing the impact of health interventions, particularly when women are the focus of the intervention, on women’s empowerment. Globally, research has shown that interventions targeting nutrition, health and economic development can affect women’s empowerment. Evidence suggests that women’s empowerment is also an underlying determinant of nutrition outcomes. Depending on the focus of the intervention, different domains of women’s empowerment will be influenced, for example, an increase in nutritional knowledge, or greater control over income and access to resources.ObjectiveThis study evaluates the impact of the Shonjibon Cash and Counselling (SCC) Trial that combines nutrition counselling and an unconditional cash transfer, delivered on a mobile platform, on women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh.Methods and analysisWe will use a mixed-methods approach, combining statistical analysis of quantitative data from 2840 women in a cluster randomised controlled trial examining the impact of nutrition behaviour change communications (BCCs) and cash transfers on child undernutrition. Pregnant participants will be given a smartphone with a customised app, delivering nutrition BCC messages, and will receive nutrition counselling via a call centre and an unconditional cash transfer. This study is a component of the SCC Trial and will measure women’s empowerment using a composite indicator based on the Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, with quantitative data collection at baseline and endline. Thematic analysis of qualitative data, collected through longitudinal interviews with women, husbands and mothers-in-law, will elicit a local understanding of women’s empowerment and the linkages between the intervention and women’s empowerment outcomes. This paper describes the study protocol to evaluate women’s empowerment in a nutrition-specific and sensitive intervention using internationally validated, innovative tools and will help fill the evidence gap on pathways of impact, highlighting areas to target for future programming.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (Ref. PR 17106) and The University of Sydney (Ref: 2019/840). Findings from this study will be shared in Bangladesh with dissemination sessions in-country and internationally at conferences, and will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

scholarly journals Financial Inclusion and Firms Growth in Manufacturing Sector: A Threshold Regression Analysis in Selected Asean Countries

Economies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
Rosmah Nizam ◽  
Zulkefly Abdul Karim ◽  
Tamat Sarmidi ◽  
Aisyah Abdul Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Manufacturing Firm ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Asean Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Threshold Point

This paper examines the effect of financial inclusion on the firm growth of the manufacturing sector (513 firms) in selected ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam) using a cross-section threshold estimation technique. The levels of financial inclusion across firms were measured based on the distribution of financial services (access to credit). The main findings revealed that there is a non-monotonic effect of financial inclusion on the firm’s growth. These findings show that the impact of financial inclusion on firm growth in the manufacturing sector is significantly positive below a threshold point, and turns to significantly negative after a certain threshold point has been reached. These new findings suggest that manufacturing firm owners and banking institutions should deepen their financial inclusion efforts, and limit the distribution of credit access within the optimum value or threshold level in promoting the growth of the firm.

scholarly journals The impact of self-help groups on pastoral women’s empowerment and agency: A study in Nigeria

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adedamola F. Badejo ◽  
Ayodele O. Majekodunmi ◽  
Peter Kingsley ◽  
James Smith ◽  
Susan C. Welburn
Keyword(s):  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Self Help Groups ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals A Study on the Impact of Schemes and Programmes of Government of India on Agriculture to Increase Productivity, Profitability, Financial Inclusion, and Welfare of Farmers to Transform them into Modern Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-243
Author(s):  
Mahesh K. M. ◽  
P. S. Aithal ◽  
Sharma K. R. S.
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

Purpose: The foremost intent of this research article is to create awareness about various schemes for the productive sector of agriculture. Through this study, the level of performance of these agricultural schemes and programmes were analysed that will be helpful for the attainment of financial inclusion. Hence it is necessary to know about various schemes and their making to connect the beneficiaries. Agriculture is the basic source of food supply, production, processing, promotion and distribution. Agricultural products contribute to Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P.) and generate employment in rural areas. They transform the lives of the farmers in modern society. The government of India has introduced Minimum Support Price (MPS), MIF, PMKSY, PMFBY, e-NAM, PM-KISAN, PMJDY, PM-KUSUM, PKVY, NAMS, and MGNREGS. The mobile app KisanSuvidha and innovative programmes like Kisan Rail, KrishiUdaan double the farmers’ Income (DFI). These help in transforming village economy, coverage of irrigation, crop insurance, and stabilizing the income. They also ensure financial support, flow of credit and Direct Benefit transfer of subsidies and funds to beneficiaries. Adopting modern technology, farm-based activity, poultry, dairy, forestry, beekeeping and with the support of SHGs which will directly impact productivity, profitability, financial inclusion, and the welfare of farmers in the 21st century and development of the country’s economy. Design/ methodology/approaches: This study is all about the theoretical concepts based on analysis of various schemes and interconnect. Findings and results: This study reveals that the effectiveness of various agricultural programs and also identifies the benefits and beneficiaries of these schemes. Under this research, various financial services, subsidies, funds released, online platform for agricultural products, funds for micro-irrigation, and so on benefits provided by the government of India were studied. Originality/value: Analysed the various schemes and compelled its beneficiaries and develop a modern to achieve financial inclusion and economic growth through the study. Type of Paper: Research Analysis.

scholarly journals Inequalities in women’s empowerment and prevalence of HIV in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 3069
Author(s):  
Shri Kant Singh ◽  
Deepanjali Vishwakarma ◽  
Bhawana Sharma ◽  
Santosh Kumar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Hiv Infections ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Hiv Prevalence ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Spousal Violence ◽  
Sexual Rights ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Hiv Aids

Background: Over the years, there has been growing evidence of continuous narrowing gender gap in new HIV infections, despite stagnation in overall HIV prevalence in India. Among others, one of the reasons behind the exiting pattern in HIV/AIDS in the country is the poor status of women, lack of control over their sexuality and poor reproductive and sexual rights.Methods: This paper analyses the troika of women’s empowerment, spousal-violence, and HIV prevalence in India using data from two rounds (2005-2006 and 2015-2016) of Indian DHS having a community-based HIV testing.Results: Results corroborate the recent spurts in women’s empowerment in India, which cuts across socio-economic groups. It has positively influenced a decline in spousal-violence even in the lowest socio-economic strata despite significant inequality across states. HIV prevalence among women has not been changed over the last decade (0.22% to 0.23%) despite decreased adult HIV prevalence. Women having control over their sexuality is significantly less likely to have HIV infection. Relationship between marital control behavior of husband and HIV prevalence, which was significant in 2005-06 (OR=1.2, p<0.10), has emerged to be insignificant in 2015-16. This means that increasing women's empowerment has altered their HIV prevalence through increasing sexual-rights and reducing the intensity of marital control behavior.Conclusions: A combative relationship has been established between women’s empowerment and their risk of HIV/AIDS. The results have been consistently showing the variations of inequality in women’s empowerment across different states, consequently affecting the risk of HIV/AIDS. Ensuring sexual-rights of women should be the best strategy.

scholarly journals ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Arun.K.V
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Formal System ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Handheld Devices ◽  
Mobile Banking ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Banking Business

Technology and financial inclusion are the popular coinage in banking parleys in the country. While technological upgradation and mobile banking are catching up so fast, financial inclusion is tardy. Financial inclusion is a major agenda for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Without financial inclusion, banks cannot reach the un-banked. It is also a major step towards increasing savings and achieving balanced growth. The reach the country is having with technological progress mobile banking has the potential to emerge as a game changer in terms of costs, convenience, and speed of reach. Business models of banks, telecom operators and other stakeholders need to converge. However, the banking industry’s penetration to un-banked areas is still found sluggish. The role of the Indian banker is challenging. At one end of this spectrum lies the demand to achieve financial inclusion as nearly 50 per cent of the population is yet to be covered under the formal system of banking and at the other end lies the task to fulfil the needs of the existing customers. The first priority for banks is to adopt core banking solution (CBS), including all regional rural banks (RRBs). Next, a multi-channel approach using handheld devices, mobiles, cards, micro-ATMs, branches and kiosks can be used. However, it should be ensured that the transactions put through such front-end devices should be seamlessly integrated with the banks’ CBS. In rural areas, where accessibility is a problem, banks are using the microfinance network and business correspondents and facilitators to bring more people under the ambit of banking services. Capitalising on the huge untapped potential in smaller towns and cities and rendering financial services to this segment of people poses a big challenge. Few banks have explored technology solutions to increase the scale of their microfinance portfolios, with the use of smart cards and core banking solutions. KEYWORDS- Technology, Financial Inclusion, Core Banking, Business Correspondents

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document