Digital Financial Inclusion and Financial Health in Kenya: Gendered Analysis

Dickson Onyango Wandeda, Denise Poulard, Kemboi Michael Kipkorir, Caroline Kinya Ikiriinya, John West Lentimalei, Karanja Michael, Peter Epukon Loyapan and Jemimmah Ntutu

African Journal of Economic Review, 2023, vol. 11, issue 3

Abstract: This paper adopted propensity score matching to estimate the propensity of digital financial inclusion among women in Kenya and the average treatment effect of digital financial inclusion on financial health of women in Kenya. Utilizing the Financial Access Survey 2021 dataset on 22024 households, the study found that the socio-demographic aspects that contributed to the digital financial uptake among women was the level of education, marital status, religion, age, and place of residence, with significant differences between users and non-users of digital finance. In addition, with mobile phone and television ownership, there was a higher likelihood of women using digital finance, with a significant difference between users and non-users. Additionally, it was found that women in Kenya using digital finance are more likely to be financially healthy. We, therefore, recommend that more targeted approach by government and financial institutions towards enhancing digital literacy, the government needs to implement gender-responsive policies that would foster the subsidization of mobile devices and offer incentives for mobile network operators to strengthen rural network connectivity, and the Kenya government and financial institutions could capitalize on accessible communication channels such as mobile phones, radio, and community outreach programs.

Keywords: Public; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/339642/files/Wandeda.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:afjecr:339642

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.339642

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in African Journal of Economic Review from African Journal of Economic Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().