Acquisition and Engagement Strategies to Reach Women With Digital Financial Services

In both Nigeria and Pakistan, it is clear that women’s biggest barrier to equality of access to digital financial services is not, in fact, a lack of money. Low-income women already save their money, but often in unsafe ways, due to physical and emotional barriers to actively engaging with formal financial services. Digital financial services, through channels such as mobile phones and retail agents, can break down these barriers by offering accessibility, convenience, privacy and security, particularly where a critical mass of registered mobile subscribers already exist, as they do in Nigeria and Pakistan.

Women's World Banking applied different approaches in Nigeria and Pakistan to increase both the acquisition of women customers as well as women’s engagement with digital financial services. The lessons from the use of behavioral and design techniques in Nigeria and Pakistan can lead to addressing barriers to digital financial services for low-income women around the globe.