5G speeds up, gender gap in mobile money awareness still loading: Report

India has witnessed a mobile revolution in recent years, particularly with one of the fastest 5G networks globally. However, there exists a clear gender gap in India regarding the awareness of mobile money accounts, a key financial tool for achieving financial inclusion.

According to an annual face-to-face consumer survey conducted by Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) across seven low- and middle-income countries in 2023, adult women in India with phones exhibit the lowest awareness of mobile money accounts. Besides India, the surveyed countries include Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Pakistan.

The survey reveals that while awareness of mobile money accounts among the adult female population in India with mobile phones increased from 27 per cent in 2022 to 34 per cent in 2023, it still remains the lowest compared to Indonesia (48 per cent), Bangladesh (72 per cent), Pakistan (76 per cent), Nigeria (70 per cent), and Kenya (100 per cent).

Conversely, awareness among adult Indian men with phones increased from 41 per cent in 2022 to 52 per cent in 2023.

This survey is part of GSMA’s comprehensive report titled ‘The State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2024’.

Similarly, in India, the gender gap in mobile money Account ownership between adult men and women stands at 56 per cent. While only 11 per cent of the total adult male population with phones possesses a mobile money account, this number is projected to more than double to 24 per cent among adult males by 2023.

The gender gap in mobile money accounts in India is comparable to Bangladesh but lower than Pakistan. However, this gap is significantly narrower in other countries such as Kenya (2 per cent), Indonesia (9 per cent), and Senegal (18 per cent).

GSMA also addresses the frequency of usage among account holders, revealing a narrowing gap between men and women in India: 87 per cent of men and 84 per cent of women have used their money accounts in the last 30 days. However, in terms of frequency, with respect to using the money account at least once every seven days, men (57 per cent) outnumber women users (46 per cent).

Underlying the gender gap is the skewed ownership of mobile phones in favour of men, with a 10 percentage point gap in India compared to just 1 percentage point in Kenya and 5 per cent in Nigeria.

Notably, countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan exhibit far larger gender gaps in mobile ownership compared to India.

On a global scale, 1.75 billion mobile money-registered accounts processed $1.4 trillion in transactions in 2023. While South Asia, including India, accounted for 23 per cent of the total registered accounts, it only represented 15 per cent of the value of global transactions. However, sub-Saharan Africa emerged as a success story, contributing three-quarters of all accounts and 65 per cent of the total transaction value.