At her food stall in the largest open-air market in Lagos, Nigeria, Amaka Charles regularly checks her cell phone for her bank account balance. She is saving for her daughter's school fees and dreaming of a loan to expand her business beyond crayfish.
Every day, she passes her few dollars of profit to Celestina, the bank agent who roams the market to collect vendors' deposits. Charles calls if Celestina is late — she does not want to leave without trading her profit for the "bing" her cell phone makes each time her latest deposit is received.
Before she opened her BETA account with Diamond Bank, Charles stashed her cash in a drawer or entrusted it to an informal collector who, as part of a traditional neighborhood savings program, kept a tally of vendors' savings in a little notebook.
Access to financial services like bank accounts and digital payments can change the lives of women like Charles by allowing them to invest in their families' health and education, borrow to grow their business, and build a cushion to better manage emergencies.
Yet close to one billion women around the world have no access to savings, credit or insurance, according to the World Bank's Global Findex report. And even as the number of people opening bank accounts increases globally, the gap between male and female account holders in developing countries has stubbornly remained for nearly a decade.
Better access to financial services matters not just to women and their families, but also to economies. With greater financial inclusion, women are better able to realize their economic potential, and the gains can be staggering.
Banks benefit, too, and more of them are recognizing that women are a promising and largely untapped client base that can fuel business growth. Even low-income women save 10% to 15% of their earnings, and their balances do not fluctuate as much as men's — a consistency valued by banks.