CEMAC panel interview series: Diane NDEUNA and Nadine KAMGA MBEKO
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 Diane NDEUNA and Nadine KAMGA MBEKO, both of whom are from Cameroon:
Diane NDEUNA has more than ten years of experience coaching women in both rural and urban areas. She provides face-to-face and online training on how to start an income-generating activity.
Nadine KAMGA MBEKO has more than 13 years of experience in finance. She works for the emancipation of rural women and the development of digital financial models for women.
Question 1: What do you think are the most important barriers to financial inclusion for women in your region?
Diane NDEUNA (DN): The most significant barriers to financial inclusion for women include:
The low level of education and the weak culture of financial education;
Misogynist laws;
Social stereotypes and other negative beliefs about what a woman should or should not do without "her husband."
Nadine KAMGA MBEKO (NKM): In Cameroon, cultural norms tend to overvalue men to the detriment of women, whose role is much more centered on social and domestic prerogatives.
Other obstacles include:
The inaccessibility of technological innovations due to the costs of communication and access to the Internet connection and to digital technology, which remain very high compared to our cost of living;
The increasingly greater difficulty in acquiring National Identity Cards.
Although Cameroon is positioned in the sub-region as a leader in terms of financial services, the banking rate remains very low due to the very rigid and very suffocating accessibility conditions, as well as ignorance, lack of communication, under-information and lack of awareness on the issue.
Question 2: Why is consumer protection important, especially for women?
DN: Women help accelerate the level of banking and financial flow traceability, because people feel safe. It facilitates financial education because people see a real interest in it. And it prevents abuse of vulnerable people and create a favorable field for financial inclusion because it allows people who do not meet banking or mobile money requirements to be included in the system..
NKM: Because just like the elderly, with little or no education, the unemployed, workers and people from the lower social class, women fall into the category of vulnerable consumers and victims of fraudulent / unfair commercial practices having greater difficulty asserting or claiming their rights.
Consumer protection is important as it aims to:
Strengthen consumer safety regarding goods and services through effective market surveillance, through common rules;
Help consumers properly inform themselves about what they are buying, and about the remedies to which they have rights in case of inconvenience;
Improve the effective implementation of rules;
Adapt legislation to change, while considering the specific problems of the most vulnerable consumers such as women.
Question 3. How can you effectively advocate for public policies and regulations that consider the needs of women?
DN: Some ideas for effective advocacy:
Create a framework for consultation and lobbying to carry out advocacy;
Organize an annual financial inclusion day or forum. This activity can be scaled up at the local level with the support of town halls and the participation of women's organizations and other civil society organizations (CSOs);
Designate and equip “Ambassadors” capable of carrying out advocacy.
NKM: By advocating for information programs, training, ongoing awareness-raising and the implementation of tools, laws, and regulations, as well as appropriate policies that consider the specific needs of women for their empowerment AND by getting public policies and regulators to consider that gender equality and equity are the very first ethical and political conditions for real social economic progress, we can effectively advocate for public policies for women.
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