Welcome to our interview series featuring the CEMAC advisory panel. Each week, we’ll share insights from panelists on women's financial inclusion and consumer protection — and the role of public policy in creating better conditions within their regions.

This week, we hear from Delphine NOUIND from Cameroon and Antoinette MANGARAL KOUDJAL from Chad:

Delphine NOUIND is the founder of HISSIS: Association of Emerging Rural Women of Hikoadjom in the Makak area - Nyong and Kellé department. The organisation helps women transform agricultural products (i.e., cassava and cocoa) and provides training in land, family and health rights.

Antoinette MANGARAL KOUDJAL is a leadership consultant in female entrepreneurship. She headed the Chadian Association of Operators in the agrifood sector and she trains women on strategies for processing local products.

Question 1: What do you think are the most important barriers to financial inclusion for women in your region?  

Delphine NOUIND (DN): The most important barriers are:

• The state of infrastructure, including inadequate telephone networks and mobile financial services. Without electricity, without roads, how do you transport goods and supply your customers?

• The security of the data collected, including contact details and amount of transactions.

• The transparency of official tariffs, especially unjustified additional transaction fees.

• At the administrative level, absence of identity cards and land titles.

Antoinette MANGARAL KOUDJAL (AMK): The most important barriers to the financial inclusion of women in our region are:

• The persistent socio-cultural constraints that lead to women not having the same opportunities as men as well as the social constraints that burden women psychologically

• Difficulty accessing financial services, which means that women cannot benefit from working capital to allow them to carry out their activities normally

• The lack of adequate training to enable them to have the necessary tools to develop their activities

• The lack of access to information in the field of income-generating activities, the most obvious and very frequent example is that of women who prefer to keep their money at home instead of depositing it in a bank that could generate interest. 

Question 2: Why is consumer protection important, especially for women?

DN: Protecting consumers is important because it is a matter of respecting their private and professional life. Pioneers of the informal economy, women must be safe digitally in order to prosper economically. Consumer protection is essential to increasing their economic power, reducing inequalities, strengthening the socio-economic fabric, gaining autonomy and eradicating poverty.

AMK: Before answering the question asked, I would like to point out here that in Chad we have law no: 005 / PR / 2015 on consumer protection. It applies to all consumer transactions relating to the production, supply, distribution, sale, exchange of services and technology goods, bearing the protection of consumers. How many women in Chad know that this law exists…?

To return to the question, we must know that consumer protection is important in general because the rise in power of the consumer society is accompanied by sales practice placing the consumer in a situation of economic, technical and legal inferiority. Mainly, the female consumer is vulnerable who is not protected and left behind, unaware of the texts of the legislator that protect her.

If we want women to enjoy the same rights, we need to prioritize consumer protection. The texts and laws in our countries are not well known, which is why it is necessary to promote educational activities and to issue opinions on consumer issues.

Question 3. How can you effectively advocate for public policies and regulations that consider the needs of women? 

DN: It is necessary to :

• Involve women in decision-making that concerns them, question them about their needs and their difficulties in the field, select the causes before offering a solution, carry out development communication and advocate their cause.

• Allow associations and representatives of consumers to sit in the places where decisions are made

• Develop a practice that encourages and establishes quotas for the presence of women

• Establish citizen dialogue and promote gender mainstreaming

AMK: To effectively advocate for public policies and regulations that take into account the needs of women, it is first necessary to set up a platform or a committee with a legal framework to encourage the public authorities to develop laws to regulate the services that can promote financial inclusion for women.

It is also important to advocate for legal reform in favor of the economic empowerment of women and / or insist on the participation of women in decision-making bodies which must be crowned by parity laws.

We must also advocate for partnering with financial institutions to enable women to have more information on financial inclusion.

The next few months

As the Panel continues its work over the next few months, we hope to support the participants in translating their insights and experiences into work that can be taken up by public sector decision-makers. 

If you have ideas from how to improve women’s financial inclusion in the CEMAC region, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Authors

Alexis Ditkowsky