Gender and Financial Inclusion: Analysis of Financial Inclusion of Women in the SADC Region

Considering the important benefits of women's access to financial services, this policy research paper examines the significance of the gender gap in financial inclusion in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, with a view to providing policy prescriptions. Unlike previous studies that mainly focused on examining the state of access to formal and informal financial services, the paper subjects the FinScope data in the public domain to econometric analysis in order to study the relationship between gender and financial inclusion in the SADC region.

The paper is organized as follows: 

• Overview of financial inclusion in the SADC;
• Data econometric model used in examining the relationship between gender and financial inclusion; 
• Analysis and discussions, divided into preliminary analysis and econometric results;
• Conclusion and policy recommendations.