Kenya has made significant progress towards the development of policy and legislative frameworks that promote the equal participation of men and women in finance in line with the equality provisions in the Constitution of Kenya. However, gender gaps in financial inclusion exist in Kenya as is globally with fifty-six percent of the unbanked adults being women. Male entrepreneurs in Kenya are twice as likely to have access to finance and formal savings account, and three times more likely to have access to formal loans relative to female-led enterprises.
Without access to finance, women face difficulties in saving income, growing their businesses, and pulling their families out of poverty. Furthermore, with the growing adoption of mobile technology women are further excluded from convenient digital payment systems for lack of cell phones relative to men. As a result, women remain largely excluded from the formal financial system.
This webinar by FSD Kenya shared the findings of an in-depth study that reviewed the extent to which gender is mainstreamed in Kenya’s finance and finance-related laws and policies. Anzetse Were co-supervised the research and moderated the webinar.