Fintech Firms Urged to Target Women in Emerging Economies
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A recent survey suggests that fintech companies could do more to focus on women as customers in emerging markets. The report from IFC states that by utilizing enterprise strategies that show the number of boys and girls that use their services, fintech firms could make more plans to help the women’s market. The firms are also positioned to contribute to a greater financial system for women.
Fintech Firms Seeks To Aid Women’s Financial Inclusion
Fintech and digital financial services have been thought to be very important for helping women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Until now, there hasn’t been much research that shows exactly how much fintech companies are trying to help women’s financial inclusion and which ways are working best.
To learn more about this, IFC asked 114 fintech companies in new markets all over the world. The report, known as “Her Fintech Edge: Market Insights for Inclusive Growth”, shares what these companies think and do to offer services to female customers.
Emmanuel Nyirinkindi, the Vice President of Cross-Cutting Solutions at IFC, highlighted what the team learned from this study. He stated that with strong behavioral gender differences and barriers, fintech companies need to offer special solutions for women to help them better. In doing this, these companies can open up the full potential of the women’s market.
Fintech Firms’ Quest For Women’s Financial Inclusion Intensify
The survey found that there are still not a lot of women who make up fintech portfolios. About 63% of the fintech companies that are focused on lending funds to other companies reported that women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) don’t make up a quarter of their portfolio.
The report also stated that it’s really good for fintech companies to serve woman customers. Most of these companies think that women are less risky, more loyal, and are just as important as men or even more. The survey found that 69% of the lending-focused companies believe that women are just as loyal as men, or even more loyal.
Having leaders who understand the importance of serving women is the main reason why companies decide to focus on women. The survey found that 58% of companies attribute their strategic focus to serving women because their leaders believe it’s really important for women to be included in the financial ecosystem.
The report also noted that fintech companies need strong financial support, research, knowledge, and technical assistance to capture the women’s market.
