Empirical Study of the Gender Gap in Digital Financial Inclusion in Nigeria

The gender gap in digital financial inclusion perpetuates economic disadvantages for women and limits the developmental potential of financial technology expansion in Nigeria, and empirically characterising its dimensions and determinants is important for policy. This study empirically examined the gender gap in digital financial service access and use using a nationally representative sample from the EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2021 survey. Binary logistic regression and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition were applied to 21,000 adult respondents. Mobile money account ownership was 34.7 percent for men versus 18.3 percent for women, a gap of 16.4 percentage points. Oaxaca decomposition showed that 61.3 percent of the gender gap was explained by differences in endowments (education, income, mobile phone ownership), while 38.7 percent remained unexplained by observed characteristics (discrimination or preference effects). The endowment component was driven primarily by mobile phone ownership gaps (contributing 42.1 percent of the explainable gap). The unexplained component was largest in North West and North East zones. Literacy showed a stronger closing effect on the gap for women than additional income increments. The study fills an important empirical gap in gender-disaggregated digital finance analysis and recommends closing the mobile phone ownership gender gap as the most efficient policy entry point, alongside female-targeted financial literacy programming and trust-building mobile money products designed for female users.

Keywords: gender gap, digital financial inclusion, mobile money, Nigeria, Oaxaca decomposition