Page 5 - Connected Women
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GSMA MOBILE MONEY FOR THE UNBANKED & CONNECTED WOMEN REACHING HALF OF THE MARKET: WOMEN AND MOBILE MONEY
BOX 1
CLOSING THE GENDER DATA GAP
LACK OF GENDER DATA
Only 32% of respondents to MMU’s 2013 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey (29 out of 92 respondents) reported knowing
what percentage of their customer base was represented by women — a clear indication the mobile money industry is not
capturing sufficient information about gender. There are two main reasons for this:
• Gender data is not always readily available or tracked in know your customer (KYC) procedures. Mobile money operators must
then use other methods to gather this information, such as customer surveys.
• Gender data is available but not easily accessible, either because it has been recorded on paper forms that have not been
digitised, or because databases and platforms are not flexible enough to allow operators to filter their customers by gender.
GENDER DATA IS NOT ALWAYS RELIABLE
When gender data is available, it usually comes from KYC information. Most of the mobile money operators interviewed (6
out of 10) had collected information on gender during the customer registration process.
However, even when data is available, it is not necessarily reliable. For example, in one market, mobile money agents must take
a photo of every new customer they register as part of the KYC process. However, many customers — particularly women — are
reluctant to let agents take a photo of them. As a result, many agents end up using random pictures (often from the newspaper)
to complete the registration, and many women customers are associated with photos of men in the operator’s database. In other
markets, operators have noted a tendency for men to register on behalf of women, which makes the KYC information less reliable.
USING GENDER DATA TO BOOST MOBILE MONEY PERFORMANCE
Mobile money operators can leverage gender data in two main ways:
1. They can use it to understand the different usage patterns of male and female customers. This type of analysis is key to
identifying the barriers to women adopting the service, as well as developing strategies to remove them. This is a useful starting
point for operators to increase women’s uptake of their services.
2. Once operators have a good understanding of how women are currently using mobile money, they can use gender data to
measure the effectiveness of their tactics to drive usage. None of the interviewees had specific KPIs on mobile money usage
by women, just general KPIs on overall mobile money penetration levels. Driving women’s usage of mobile money was often
perceived as a way of achieving overall targets for mobile money penetration, and mobile money managers have closely
monitored the effectiveness of the activities they have put in place. For example, Nationwide Microbank in Papua New Guinea
7
has included financial literacy training as part of their BTL activities and aim to get at least 75% of women attending the training
to open a mobile money account.
7. For more insights on the differences between KPIs and operational metrics in the context of mobile money, see the GSMA MMU reference guide on mobile money KPIs:
http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/new-mmu-reference-guide-on-mobile-money-kpis.
5
BOX 1
CLOSING THE GENDER DATA GAP
LACK OF GENDER DATA
Only 32% of respondents to MMU’s 2013 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey (29 out of 92 respondents) reported knowing
what percentage of their customer base was represented by women — a clear indication the mobile money industry is not
capturing sufficient information about gender. There are two main reasons for this:
• Gender data is not always readily available or tracked in know your customer (KYC) procedures. Mobile money operators must
then use other methods to gather this information, such as customer surveys.
• Gender data is available but not easily accessible, either because it has been recorded on paper forms that have not been
digitised, or because databases and platforms are not flexible enough to allow operators to filter their customers by gender.
GENDER DATA IS NOT ALWAYS RELIABLE
When gender data is available, it usually comes from KYC information. Most of the mobile money operators interviewed (6
out of 10) had collected information on gender during the customer registration process.
However, even when data is available, it is not necessarily reliable. For example, in one market, mobile money agents must take
a photo of every new customer they register as part of the KYC process. However, many customers — particularly women — are
reluctant to let agents take a photo of them. As a result, many agents end up using random pictures (often from the newspaper)
to complete the registration, and many women customers are associated with photos of men in the operator’s database. In other
markets, operators have noted a tendency for men to register on behalf of women, which makes the KYC information less reliable.
USING GENDER DATA TO BOOST MOBILE MONEY PERFORMANCE
Mobile money operators can leverage gender data in two main ways:
1. They can use it to understand the different usage patterns of male and female customers. This type of analysis is key to
identifying the barriers to women adopting the service, as well as developing strategies to remove them. This is a useful starting
point for operators to increase women’s uptake of their services.
2. Once operators have a good understanding of how women are currently using mobile money, they can use gender data to
measure the effectiveness of their tactics to drive usage. None of the interviewees had specific KPIs on mobile money usage
by women, just general KPIs on overall mobile money penetration levels. Driving women’s usage of mobile money was often
perceived as a way of achieving overall targets for mobile money penetration, and mobile money managers have closely
monitored the effectiveness of the activities they have put in place. For example, Nationwide Microbank in Papua New Guinea
7
has included financial literacy training as part of their BTL activities and aim to get at least 75% of women attending the training
to open a mobile money account.
7. For more insights on the differences between KPIs and operational metrics in the context of mobile money, see the GSMA MMU reference guide on mobile money KPIs:
http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/new-mmu-reference-guide-on-mobile-money-kpis.
5
