Kim, Kyungha (2021) 'Assessing the impact of mobile money on improving the financial inclusion of Nairobi women.' Journal of Gender Studies, 31 (3). pp. 306-322.
|
Text
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Download (747kB) | Preview |
Abstract
This paper assesses to what extent, and in what ways, mobile money has affected the financial inclusion of women in Nairobi. Women in Kenya have limited property rights and continue to require approval from their husbands or male family members to conduct financial activities. Besides, most women are concentrated in the informal economy, which has exacerbated their level of financial exclusion since they struggle to provide the documentation that financial institutions require, thus making them more dependent on informal finance. This paper demonstrates how mobile money has significantly decreased the proportion of women in Nairobi excluded from using financial services. Drawing upon survey work conducted by the author across eight areas of Nairobi, this research reveals how mobile money has enabled women to benefit from instant remittance and payment services, and has offered a means of storing money safely, which is an attribute particularly valued by younger women and those with lower levels of educational attainment and income. Although mobile money does not address many of the structural drivers of gendered financial inequality, it has improved levels of financial inclusion by increasing women’s access to various financial channels from which they were previously excluded.
Item Type: | Journal Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | Social Sciences (miscellaneous), Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Gender Studies |
SOAS Departments & Centres: | Departments and Subunits > Department of Economics |
ISSN: | 14653869 |
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): | https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2021.1884536 |
SWORD Depositor: | JISC Publications Router |
Date Deposited: | 29 Mar 2022 17:16 |
URI: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/36950 |
Altmetric Data
Statistics
Accesses by country - last 12 months | Accesses by referrer - last 12 months |