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FINANCE
Meeting Women’s Needs via Targeted Financial Products DOREEN AHIMBISIWE
The Author is a Manager Banking, and Financial Services MSC (MicroSave Consulting).
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ccording to the Finscope Survey 2016, the overall gender gap in financial inclusion in Rwanda is relatively small. In terms of the total rate of financial inclusion, women show a difference of 4% percentage points. Eighty-six percent of women are financially included compared to 90% of men. However, women still lack access to formal financial products, especially in rural areas. Based on this finding, Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) felt the need to ensure that more women are financially included. They concluded that the process of inclusion had to begin with the design of appropriate products and services that meet the needs of women. AFR commissioned MSC to support three selected financial institutions— Bank of Kigali, Umwalimu SACCO, and Copedu through product development processes. The focus of the assignment was the design of women-centric financial products. Additionally, MSC also trained five local consultants in Rwanda to equip them with skills in market research and product development. As
Startupmagazine.co.ke November 2019
a result, the institutions designed three new gender-centric products, two credit products, and one savings product. We share some key insights on the product and behavioral preferences of the women customers whom we developed these products in the following section. 1.Loan repayment Women have financial needs and have the capacity to save and repay their loans. The large numbers of women who signed up for the product demonstrated this. Over six months, women accessed a credit portfolio of RWF 1 billion in one institution. Another institution registered a repayment rate of 100%. We cannot ignore this performance. It confirms that women are a viable segment that FIs can focus on. 2.Individual lending as opposed to group lending Most women prefer to access loans as individuals and not through the group
