This publication addresses barriers that prevent women from accessing and using mobile money, and highlights some of the key tactics that mobile money providers can use to increase penetration amongst women.

With 246 services in 88 countries, mobile money has contributed to increase access to financial services to millions of previously unbanked and underbanked people around the world. However, research shows that the industry might be overlooking a potential area of expansion – women, who constitute up to 50% of the potential customer base in every market.

Only 32% of the mobile money providers who took part to the 2013 MMU Global Adoption Survey reported being aware of the gender composition of their customer base and were actually able to report what percentage of their mobile money users were women. On the basis of this, the GSMA MMU and the Connected Women teams conducted semi-guided interviews with mobile money providers to understand:

• Whether it matters to measure the gender composition of mobile money customers;
• What are the barriers, if any, that make it harder for women to use mobile money, and
• What tactics have allowed successful mobile money providers to attract more women to their service.