As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day which falls on Wednesday, 8 March 2023, under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”, I wish to draw attention to the inequalities that continue to persist around women’s access to technology and their freedom to innovate.
Women’s Day is a special day dedicated to honouring the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of women and the progress made towards gender equality.
However, there is still much work to be done to ensure that women are equitably represented in all spheres of society, including the championing of innovation and adoption of technology.
In many parts of the world today, women still face immense difficulty in accessing services such as banking, retirement saving, insurance, and various other wealth management services.
According to World Bank data, women are 9 percent less likely than men to have a bank account, and 6 percent less likely to have borrowed from a financial institution.
More worryingly, women are 20 to 30 percent less likely to access formal credit. Disparities like these severely limit women’s economic opportunities and reduce their ability to save, invest and build wealth.
These disparities in Zambia have been brought into focus in the wake of calls by the New Dawn government who have challenged financial institutions to rise to the occasion and address financing disparities particularly for women.
As an award winning leading regional financial services provider that offers innovative financial solutions to Zambians, Octagon Financial Services Zambia has recommitted itself to provide guaranteed financial security by addressing some of these disparities and empowering women to achieve their financial goals.
As we aim to guarantee financial security for all, Octagon Financial Services also provides financial literacy programmes to help the public, including women and children to build their financial knowledge and skills. We are excited to note that our Regulators are already looking into regulation for Individual pension plans and Micro pensions, which once signed into law, will provide the informal sector opportunity to save for retirement. We are alsoaware that there are more women in the informal sector than men. Unfortunately, the informal sector provides very little in terms of social security for women. That said, the Individual Pension Plans and Micro pensions will provide a platform for women in informal sector to save for their retirement. That is equal access to retirement savings platforms.
As we commemorate International Women’s Dayand celebrate women’s month throughout the month of March, it is also essential to recognize the role that financial services can play in advancing gender equality.
By providing women with access to financial products and services, we can empower them to achieve their financial goals, support their families, and contribute to their communities’ development.
However, it is not enough to just provide women with access to financial services; we also need to ensure that the services are designed to meet their unique needs. This includes developing products that are affordable, accessible, and most importantly tailored to the specific challenges that women face. In addition, the products must incorporate technology to offer a seamless experience to the consumer.
Octagon Africa remains committed to promoting gender equality in financial services and empowering women to achieve their full potential by including women in its leadership team as well as at the core operations of the organisation at regional level.
This year’s International Women’s Day reminds us of the need to celebrate our own success as women,from both the formal and informal sectors, torecognize the progress made towards gender equality, and reflect on the work that remains to be done in order to achieve a digitally inclusive society that utilises innovation and technology for gender equality.
The author is Managing Director of Octagon Financial Services Limited Zambia.