The company found that repayment rates for men that went through a female agent were also higher. “They are more organized, better at settling credit and reinvesting in their business,” says Zoona’s PR & Communications Manager, Karim Amade. After launching in Zambia, the company found that women tend to be better at running the business. Zoona, a money transfer startup builds agent networks to process mobile money transactions. According to the Cherie Blair Foundation, operators have discovered that female mobile money agents lead to increased sales, access to new markets and a stronger brand image based on more thorough product communication. Jennifer Barrassa, CEO of Top Image Africa, a below-the-line advertising agency that specializes in building mobile money agent networks across Africa, explains “only 1% are women women require more trust, comfort and security to get involved in financial services.”Ĭompanies that have put in the extra effort into recruiting female agents have found that women, in general, are a better investment. While the significance of female agents is clear, the number of female mobile money agents remains low. In some Muslim communities, the presence of female agents is often the only way to disseminate the services among women. Hiring quality female agents helps to build a woman’s confidence and trust in using financial services. In middle-to-low income countries, women are 14% less likely to own a mobile phone than men. Additionally, more than 150 countries have cultural and regulatory barriers in place that prevent women from accessing financial services, from preventing them from applying for a national ID and/ or opening a bank account to inhibiting communication directly with male agents.Īccording to the GSMA, enlisting female agents may be the most effective way to overcome low literacy rates – as well as low mobile phone penetration. On the latter point, studies show that women prefer to make twice the number of interactions than men before they feel comfortable independently using financial services technologies. Key challenges include generally low literacy rates among women in emerging markets, alienating marketing strategies that are limited to pamphlets and written documents and which do not directly address women, and women’s need for more time to adapt to new technologies. Although women are a key piece of the mobile value chain, there remains a low level of mobile money adoption among women.
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