The Graça Machel Trust convened the Southern African Development Community Regional Convening to discuss the importance of digital finance in promoting women's financial inclusion.Digital Finance: A Panacea for Women's Financial Inclusion
Access to financial services is critical in empowering women and promoting gender equality. However, women in many parts of the SADC region face significant barriers when accessing formal financial services. Limited access to banking infrastructure, lack of identification documents, and cultural norms restricting women's financial autonomy all contribute to this challenge.
"Women dominate the continent's most important sectors, and when they lack access to financial services, their ability to invest in modern technologies to raise their productivity is limited. This means that if a woman is in agriculture and lacks access to finance, she cannot grow high-value crops, invest in assets, diversify her business, and cannot invest in better nutrition for her children, as well as those she serves - how concerning and disturbing this is, for us all.
Dr Charity Dhliwayo, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, emphasised the critical role of women entrepreneurs in Africa's economic growth and that the financial sector is the backbone of women entrepreneurs' success. Designing gender-sensitive financial products and actively promoting women leaders in finance are key to bridging the $42 billion financing gap for women entrepreneurs in Africa.