Financial inclusion as catalyst to women’s economic empowerment in dagoretti north sub-county, nairobi city county

Abstract

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study on financial inclusion as a catalyst to women’s economic empowerment in Dagoreti Sub-County, Nairobi City County. Women financial inclusion is not only a pathway to women economic empowerment in Kenya and elsewhere in the world but is also a necessity for achieving the sustainable development goals and eliminating inequalities in economic development. This study specifically set out to: examine the trends in women’s uptake of financial inclusion services, establish the determinants of women’s financial inclusion and to examine the relationship between women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment. The study extensively analyzed secondary data from FinAcess and Global Findex database on trends in women’s uptake of financial inclusions services, determinants of financial inclusion and the relationship between women financial inclusion and economic empowerment. The population for this study was women entrepreneurs in the five Wards in the study location and the unit of analysis was the individual woman entrepreneur. The study was guided by the Longwe framework. The study involved 25 women entrepreneurs aged 20 to 60 years sampled through snow bawling method. Purposive sampling was used to select Bank officials, assistant chiefs and chiefs as key informants. Quantitative data collected was analyzed quantitatively using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 while qualitative data was analyzed thematically in line with the study objectives. The study findings indicate that there has been a positive trend in the uptake of financial services by women over the last few years; women access and usage of financial services and products still trails that of men and this is mediated mostly by socio-economic factors like education level, age, social networks, and ownership of assets. Financial inclusion has a positive impact on the lives of the women as they have improved decision making powers at the household level, many have acquired assets such as land and have acquired positions of leadership within their communities. The women also exhibit increased purchasing power as a result of access to financial inclusion services and engagement in business activities. These businesses and other self-employment opportunities were facilitated by access to credit from different sources including personal savings, friends and family, financial institutions, women groups and mobile money lending apps. The study recommends that the state, county government and other development partners should facilitate training for the informal women group members, particularly on financial access, management, loaning procedures and group management. The study also makes suggestion for a similar but more elaborate study to be conducted covering the whole county and, where possible, disaggregate the population in terms of rural and urban/peri-urban. This will be instrumental in rethinking of women empowerment and enhancement of women’s voices in development.