DFSP country case studies

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Drivers of the Gender Gap in use of Digital Financial Services: Evidence from Uganda
(2024-07-17) Ogwang, Ambrose; Kahunde, Rehema; Makika, Maya Denis
This study uses a mixed methods approach to analyse the social and economic factors causing the gender gaps in the use of digital financial services (DFS) in Uganda, using the Uganda National Household Survey data of 2019/2020. Quantitatively, we applied the bivariate probit regression and the Fairlie technique to decompose the gender gap. Bivariate regression results showed that among other factors, males were more likely to use both bank accounts and mobile money services than females. A decomposition of the gender gap for each of the DFS using Fairlie decomposition technique indicated that social and economic factors explain 75% and 65% of the existing gender gap in the use of mobile money services and bank accounts in Uganda respectively. The largest contributor to the gender gap in the use of mobile money services was the ownership of a mobile phone (72.4%), followed by expenditure on information and communication technology (ICT) and education contributing 13.5% and 2.7% respectively. Similarly, the largest contributors to the gender gap in the use of bank accounts were education (18.0%), expenditure on ICT (15.3%), age (12.7%) and ownership of a mobile phone (11.5%). Our results from qualitative analysis put culture among the other key contributors to the gender gap. We therefore recommend that policy-makers in Uganda bridge the gender gap in employment and education between men and women, to achieve inclusivity in the use of DFS.
Exploring the Mobile Money in the Financial Inclusion Landscape in Burundi: Impacts in Gender and Location Perspectives
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) BIZOZA, Saidi; IRAKOZE, Gildas
Mobile money is a good example of the technological revolution through the digitalization of the banking system. However, the advantages offered by this new technological revolution has never been deeply explored with perspectives of existing gender and location gap in terms of financial inclusion. The present study explored the existence of policy/Regulations of Mobile Money in Burundi, the determinants of use of mobile phone and mobile money as well as the intensity of use of mobile money services and the mobile money usage impacts on gender and location perspectives on livelihood outcomes. The study used primary data collected in five different provinces. The study found that the mobile money ecosystem is governed by three different entities without a legal platform gathering them, moreover, the mobile money system is regulated by same text governing payment institutions. Furthermore, the access to electricity, alternative ways of recharge in case of lack of electricity and type of occupation of the household head were found to have a positive and significant influence on thrive, use of mobile phone, registration for mobile money and intensity of use of mobile money services. Education level, remittances, and location (urban vs rural) were found to have a positive and significant influence on both the registration and intensity of use of mobile money services. The study found also that the use of mobile money positively influences the quality of food consumption as well as the economic status proxied by wealth Index. No gender gap was found on food consumption for both wealth assets index and food consumption among the mobile money users. A significant gender gap was found both in wealth assets index and food consumption scores for mobile money non-users. A location food consumption gap was revealed for both mobile money users and non-users but with a significance skewed to mobile money nonusers’ households. A gap on location wealth assets was spotted out in favor of urban households for both mobile money users and non-users.
Gender, Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion: Empirical Evidence from Rwanda
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Munyegera,Ggombe Kasim
Rwanda has distinguished itself in terms of efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. However, some distinctive gender-based socio-economic differences remain that are worthy of policy attention. This study examined the gender differences in access to and usage of financial services and products in Rwanda using the FinScope survey of 2020. Probit regression models were used to estimate the propensity of ownership and access to digital platforms and the likelihood of using financial services. Results showed that women significantly lag behind men in terms of adoption of mobile phones, computers and the Internet. Similarly, they are less likely than men to own bank and mobile money accounts, which further translates into reduced propensity to save, and to receive and send remittances. Using Tobit regression models, the study revealed gender differences in financial inclusion at the intensive margin, that is, the amount of money saved, borrowed and sent in remittances was significantly lower among females than among males. Propensity score matching was used as a robustness check that further confirmed the negative gender effect on financial access and usage. The results imply that strategies to promote financial inclusion and digital financial services (DFS) ought to pay special attention to the specific challenges that limit women from adopting digital platforms, and from accessing and effectively using financial services to ensure greater gender equality and inclusive sustainable development in the country.
Can Mobile Money-Induced Cost Reduction Spur More Remittances to Uganda? Would the Resultant Large Remittances Affect Monetary Policy Effectiveness?
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Okello, Jimmy Apaa
The increased use of mobile money for cross-border transfers can lower the costs of cross-border remittances. The reduction in costs in turn can spur additional increases in remittances as it frees up the incomes of the senders. This study first estimated the remittance elasticity to cost by applying the pooled mean group method to quarterly panel data of three country sources of remittances to Uganda for the period 2013Q1- 2022Q4. The results showed that remittances are highly elastic to costs. This implies that a reduction in costs can spur larger remittances than is currently observed. The study then created two regimes (one with lower and another with higher growth of remittances) in which we assess the impact of remittances on monetary policy effectiveness. We use the local projection model on quarterly data for the period 2002Q3-2023Q1. The results showed that the responses of output gap, inflation, and policy rates to shock in monetary policy are broadly similar in magnitude and direction across both regimes. However, the policy rate and inflation responded sluggishly in the regime with higher growth of remittances, which suggests that in this regime, monetary policy is not as potent as it would be in the regime with lower remittance growth. Thus, in a regime with higher remittance growth, the case for an independent monetary policy is weakened. Thus, in this regime, for a central bank to credibly commit to an inflation target, it must adopt a fixed exchange rate system (or variants therein).
Access to Digital Financial Services and Women Empowerment: Evidence from Rural Rwanda
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Botha, Rosemary; Kamninga, Tony Mwenda; Tuyisenge, Methode
This study investigated the extent to which access to digital financial services empowers women to engage in more high value activities within the household. The study used the 2020 Rwanda FinScope Survey data, a nationally representative data set covering 12,480 individual respondents from all the districts in the country. Using a control function (CF) instrumental variable technique, the study found that mobile money increased women’s ability to make decisions about the management of household income on their own or jointly with their partner (agency). The results further indicate that mobile money increased female access to credit. Usage of mobile money had a positive and significant effect on agency for women residing in rural Rwanda. Although females residing in female-headed households experienced an increase in agency and access to credit, the rate of change for females residing in male-headed households were comparatively higher. The results provide evidence of incremental agency benefits that digital financial inclusion has for women whose baseline decision-making power is low, especially in patriarchal societies where women have been historically disenfranchised in household decision-making. Thus, mobile money could be used as a tool for poverty reduction and service providers; can invest in developing services that deepen household savings and credit through mobile money to further contribute to improvement of household welfare.
Digital Finance and Gender Gap in Enterprise Performance: Evidence from Kenya
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Lemma, Tesfaye T.; Mlilo, Mthokozisi
The meteoric rise of digital financial services (DFS) in recent years has sparked the debate on whether they help financially constrained businesses to overcome their performance disadvantages. This study sought to examine whether female-owned enterprises, which tend to be more financially constrained than those owned by men, could curb their performance disadvantage attributable to financial constraints by using mobile money—a form of digital financial technology. Analysing data drawn from 317 firms subsumed in the 2018 World Bank Enterprise Survey on Kenya, we found that the use of mobile money for financial transactions reduces the performance disadvantage of female-owned firms. Using the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition analysis, we further found that female-owned enterprises which use mobile money for financial transactions were able to cut circa 42.5% of their performance disadvantage induced by financial constraints. In additional analyses, we demonstrated that the influence of access to traditional financial services on the association between a firm’s use of mobile money and its performance outcomes is statistically insignificant. Overall, the findings highlight that women-owned firms could exploit mobile money technology to mitigate the gender gap in performance outcomes.
Promoting Gender Inclusion in Digital Financial Services: Evidence on Policies and Socio Economic Factors in Kenya.
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Tamba, Cox Lwaka; Murithi, Immaculate Kathomi
The meteoric rise of digital financial services (DFS) in recent years has sparked the debate on whether they help financially constrained businesses to overcome their performance disadvantages. This study sought to examine whether female-owned enterprises, which tend to be more financially constrained than those owned by men, could curb their performance disadvantage attributable to financial constraints by using mobile money—a form of digital financial technology. Analysing data drawn from 317 firms subsumed in the 2018 World Bank Enterprise Survey on Kenya, we found that the use of mobile money for financial transactions reduces the performance disadvantage of female-owned firms. Using the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition analysis, we further found that female-owned enterprises which use mobile money for financial transactions were able to cut circa 42.5% of their performance disadvantage induced by financial constraints. In additional analyses, we demonstrated that the influence of access to traditional financial services on the association between a firm’s use of mobile money and its performance outcomes is statistically insignificant. Overall, the findings highlight that women-owned firms could exploit mobile money technology to mitigate the gender gap in performance outcomes.
Digital Finance Policy and its Impact on Financial Inclusion in Uganda
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Okot, Nicholas; Kasekende, Elizabeth
Sound policies provide a formal framework for interaction between economic agents engaged in the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services. The transition to digital finance requires policies that spur innovation and promote competition while protecting agents to enhance confidence in the financial system and financial inclusion. Uganda has enacted a set of laws, regulations, policies and guidelines to regulate digital financial services (DFS). This study examined the impact of digital finance policies on financial inclusion coupled with the gender and rural/urban dimension using the treatments effects model and key informant interviews (KIIs). The findings showed that digital finance policies enhance financial inclusion for both men and women, largely driven by the uptake of mobile money services. Individuals with financial awareness use DFS such as online banking, mobile wallets and agent banking, but are cognizant of risk of fraud. Further, rural dwellers were less likely to access digital finance than were their urban counterparts. The KII confirmed that indeed DFS has enhanced access and usage of financial services. The other drivers of financial inclusion cited were costs, convenience and FinTech innovations. However, gender disparity existed, with rural women being the most disadvantaged. This requires public policy to provide infrastructure where the private sector has no incentives, review distortionary taxes, enhance financial literacy and mitigation of cybercrime.
The Fintech Ecosystem and Financial Inclusion: Evidence from Kenya
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Kodongo, Odongo
Motivated by calls to examine whether fintech fosters effective financial inclusion, we examined how consumer engagement with the fintech ecosystem affects access to traditional financial services. Using the FinAccess Kenya Household Survey 2021 data, we constructed a novel metric of individual engagement with the fintech ecosystem and investigated how it is associated with consumption of formal traditional financial products at the microlevel. Deploying a battery of econometric procedures, we have provided robust evidence that individual engagement with the fintech ecosystem is positively associated with use of formal traditional financial products. The positive impact of individual engagement with the fintech ecosystem on their use of traditional financial products is transmitted though reduction of the distance barrier and by fostering the consumption of financial products by traditionally disfavoured population segments. We have provided several policy guides anchored on these findings.
Who is More Likely to Pay the Tax on Mobile Money Withdrawals?
(African Economic Research Consortium, 2024-07-17) Sekumbo, Karia; Manda, Noela Ringo Constantine
This study investigated the distributional effects of a controversial tax that was instituted on mobile money withdrawals in 2021. The lowest taxable amount of TZS 1,000 (USD 0.0023) was taxed at the highest rate of 1% on every withdrawal while the largest taxable bracket (starting from TZS 3 million equivalent to USD 1,304.35) was taxed at a rate of 0.33% on every withdrawal. Almost immediately after its introduction, transaction volumes across mobile money platforms declined substantially. The country’s policy-makers revised this tax multiple times before removing it altogether. Given this turnaround, we investigated how the burden of tax affects different consumer groups. Our data sources for this analysis comprised aggregated transaction- level data obtained from the Bank of Tanzania alongside nationally representative survey data. Relying on survey data answer choices, we constructed regression models assessing how social determinants contributed to mobile money use. Our findings revealed salaried respondents based in urban areas as being more likely to reduce consumption of mobile money services because of this transaction tax. We also observed gender dynamics at play as being female was associated with receiving less mobile money from friends and family. These results suggest that less wealthy respondents in rural areas with fewer substitutes were forced to contend with this tax while wealthier urban respondents substituted into different financial services. The results are consistent with those from other African countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda, which also attempted to introduce similar taxes on mobile money and faced similar outcomes.

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