Gender gap in mobile money use still wide in Bangladesh

The gender gap in mobile money account ownership is 55 per cent in Bangladesh as mobile ownership among men is growing at a faster pace than among women, according to a global report.

Women's account ownership stayed the same at 20 per cent in 2022 compared to a year earlier while men's account ownership increased from 41 per cent to 45 per cent, according to the GSMA's annual report, styled "State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023".

The report is based on data collected from the Global Adoption Survey 2022 and 2022 GSMA Consumer Survey. The Consumer Survey was carried out in nine countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal.

In eight of the nine countries surveyed, the gender gap in mobile money account ownership is greater among those living in rural areas.

Mobile money awareness is much lower for women than men in some markets, such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria, and is an important barrier to be overcome, the report said

Men, and especially women, who live in rural areas tend to face barriers in mobile money account ownership more acutely than their urban counterparts. These barriers include lower awareness, lack of a mobile phone, lower digital skills and more restrictive social norms.

The report said that while social and humanitarian cash transfers have become increasingly digitalised since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, many users still do not receive payments via mobile money.

Apart from Bangladesh, fewer than 10 per cent of surveyed mobile money users had received any government-to-person (G2P) payments in the last three months.

Salary payments via mobile money were much more frequent in several countries at the time, including 27 per cent in Kenya, 18 per cent in Bangladesh and 17 per cent in Ghana.

Mobile money awareness is much lower for women than men in some markets, such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria, and is an important barrier to be overcome, the report said.

Globally, mobile money transactions are spiralling fast and hit $3.45 billion in 2022, which was over 33 per cent higher than the prediction made in 2021.

The report, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is published annually by the GSMA.

The total transaction value for mobile money grew from $1 trillion in 2021 to around $1.26 trillion in 2022, the report said.

The report demonstrates that rates of adoption are even quicker than expected with the number of registered mobile money accounts growing by 13 per cent year-on-year from $1.4 billion in 2021 to $1.6 billion in 2022.

While it took the industry 17 years to reach the first 800 million customers, it has taken just five years to reach the next 800 million, posting extremely significant growth, according to the report.

However, in many areas worldwide, more work is still needed to help give underserved communities access to safe, secure and affordable financial services with 1.4 billion people worldwide remaining unbanked, it said.

The GSMA is a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation that is foundational to positive business environments and societal change.