Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

In recent years, there has been increased interest in access to formal financial services by the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) in developing countries. Today, there are six competing mobile money transfer systems in Kenya (“M-Pesa,” “yuCash,” “Orange Money”, “Airtel money,” “PesaPoint” and “PataCash”), each of which offers subscribers SIM card registrations and subscriptions to mobile money transfer systems. Thereafter, subscribers access electronic money remittances, payments, micro-credits, insurances, savings accounts, and loan facilities. These products are key instruments in the empowered of the poor as they become exposed to branchless banking in their daily lives. In Kenya, however, very few studies have addressed the inter-linkages between gender empowerment and financial inclusion in banking institutions. This is in spite of the fact that mobile money systems are technologies, which embody gender differences as well as socio-cultural constructs like gender empowerment. This study examines the gender dimension of mobile money systems, exploring how mobile money systems can give one gender preferential access and empowerment to financial intermediation at the expense of the other.