Male mobile money account ownership rises in Bangladesh, women’s stagnant: Report
The gender gap in mobile money account ownership in Bangladesh widened over the past year
The percentage of male mobile money account ownership in Bangladesh has increased to 45% in 2022 from 41% in the previous year. However, women's account ownership has remained the same at 20% compared to 2021, according to the new report of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA).
According to the State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023, published on Tuesday, the gender gap in mobile money account ownership in Bangladesh widened over the past year.
This is primarily due to mobile ownership among men growing at a faster pace than that of women.
GSMA made the report based on data collected from the Global Adoption Survey 2022 and the 2022 GSMA Consumer Survey in nine countries – Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Senegal.
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In India, the percentage of mobile money account ownership in 2022 was 16% for males and 4% for females, while in Pakistan, the percentages are 26% and 4% respectively, as per the report.
In Indonesia, the percentage of male mobile money account ownership was 18% and for females, it was 15%.
Regarding the GSMA report, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said that women are lagging behind due to the male-dominated social system in which women are not empowered financially.
"The good thing is that a significant number of women now own mobile phones, which was unimaginable 15 years ago," he said.
"To increase women's inclusion in digital payments or mobile money, the government has decided to disburse primary educational stipends to the mobile phones of students' mothers, which will require them to have a mobile money account," said Mustafa Jabbar.
According to the Bangladesh Bank data, currently, there are 19.68 crore mobile money accounts under 13 mobile financing service (MFS) providers in the country. Of these, 11.37 crore belong to men and 8.26 crore belong to women.
Meanwhile, the GSMA report found that the gender gap in mobile money account ownership tends to be higher among certain demographics. For instance, in eight out of the nine countries surveyed, the gender gap in mobile money account ownership is greater among those living in rural areas.
