Access to mobile money is critical to improve financial inclusion for billions across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It can be a key enabler in reducing poverty and improving prosperity, as well as increasing resilience against negative economic and climate-related shocks. Across LMICs, there is a persistent gender gap in mobile money account ownership and use. A key reason for this is a lack of trust. While trust plays an important role in mobile money adoption and use, there is a knowledge gap regarding women’s trust in mobile money.
The GSMA Mobile Money team partnered with Sofrecom on research to better understand the dynamics of women’s trust in mobile money and agents and how to drive their financial inclusion. This report focuses on Nigeria, a nascent and growing mobile money market, and Senegal, a more mature mobile money market, using qualitative data and supporting nationally representative quantitative data. Focusing on urban and peri-urban women from Lagos and Dakar, it presents a framework consisting of nine attributes of trust and maps drivers of their trust, their level of trust in each attribute and the impact of distrust on their uptake and use of mobile money and agents.
This research uncovers varying levels of trust and distrust in mobile money and agents observed among these urban and peri-urban women. In both countries, there are some notable areas of distrust. In Nigeria, women distrust prices considered ‘too attractive’ and have little confidence in getting customer support when they need it. In Senegal, women demonstrate a substantial lack of trust in the security and ease of use of mobile money. This research is intended for stakeholders looking to improve the use of digital financial services among women in West Africa. It is important because a better understanding of the dynamics of trust in mobile money and agents could equip stakeholders with the ability to enhance women’s trust in the mobile money ecosystem. In turn, this could improve adoption, regular and diverse use, and financial inclusion among women.
