For World's Consumer Rights Day 2022, UNCDF convened civil society representatives from Nigeria and Gabon and a regulator from Sierra Leone to share their views on how digital financial services can better serve their purpose and why a gender lens matters for Financial Consumer Protection. Hear what they had to say.

The webinar was presented as part of the Fair Digital Finance Forum organized by Consumers International.

Watch the webinar: Why a gender lens matters for financial consumer protection (In English)

Voices from the webinar

The lively conversation between Felicia Monye (Nigeria), Virginie Mounanga (Gabon), and Philip Bangura (Sierra Leone) was moderated by UNCDF Policy Accelerator’s Sophie Falsini and included the participation of Ahmed Dermish and Friederike Rühmann (also from the UNCDF Policy Accelerator).

Felicia Monye (Nigeria)

Felicia Monye, Professor of Law at the University of Nigeria, President of Consumer Awareness Organisation, and Council Member of Consumers International, has been active in promoting consumer protection frameworks. She pointed out that, up until recently, despite calling for “equal treatment for all,” such frameworks were largely gender-blind. “You do not talk about inclusion, you must also talk about its usefulness. If I am included, what do I have to gain? We must talk about incentives,” she remarked. Given the existing deep gender gaps, the Central Bank of Nigeria has begun to realize that more incentives are needed.

The newest framework for advancing women’s financial inclusion entails specific provisions on how to enhance the participation of women in the financial sector, thereby marking a positive change from gender-blind to gender-transformative initiatives. However, implementation remains unclear, leaving women’s needs unaddressed.

Virginie Mounanga (Gabon)

Virginie Mounanga, CEO of the Gabon-based agency Blanc Cristal and member of UNCDF Policy Accelerator’s CEMAC Advisory Panel stated, “To improve the financial inclusion process for underserved groups in Gabon we should […] bear in mind their level of knowledge about the subject. We should demonstrate the relevance of ICT for financial inclusion and put an accent on education and training.”

To ensure that women are empowered and that their needs are strategically met, the chain of communication between consumers, the private sector, and regulators should be improved. To achieve this goal, the accent should be placed on fostering participative policy processes and amplifying and convening independent consumers’ voices through inclusive consultations. Consultation processes are key during the design of financial consumer protection guidelines. Listening to different voices increases trust and understanding of the various challenges faced by all parties and minimizes unintended consequences and discrimination.

Philip Bangura (Sierra Leone)

Philip Bangura, Assistant Director of the Consumer Protection and Credit Reference Bureau at the Bank of Sierra Leone, made it clear that in order to create trust in the system and ensure the success of consumer protection guidelines, data collection, as well as well-functioning redress and supervision mechanisms, are key. “We want all Financial Service Providers to send us the list of all those who applied for loans, those who were approved, and those who were declined and why—disaggregated by gender [...] This way, we are able to understand whether discrimination exists [...] If we are able to get this data, which has never been collected before, we might be able to address this issue,” he stated.

To do so, both banks and financial sector providers must be held accountable for performing oversight on consumer complaints. Many women do not share their complaints in writing, mostly because they do not know about complaints systems or aren’t familiar with how to use them, given a lack of financial literacy. This results in a problematic lack of data. Up until now, given the lack of evidence on the number of women who have applied for and benefitted from financial services, and the amount of complaints filed by women (e.g. harassment during debit collection), regulators struggle to understand if and how women are treated unfairly.

Key takeaway: Listening works

Fostering participative policy processes and amplifying independent consumers’ voices through inclusive consultations allows us to implement consumer protection policies for a digital economy that includes — and serves — everyone.

An example of this kind of effort is the UNCDF Advisory Panel on Women and Digital Financial Services in Central Africa. Launched in 2021, it gathered 40 women and men from the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) who shared their expectations, concerns, and recommendations on how to accelerate women’s financial inclusion.

This approach also proved particularly useful in the context of implementing financial consumer protection guidelines in Sierra Leone. UNCDF supported Sierra Leone’s consultation process and knowledge exchange with peer markets, and the Bank of Sierra Leone in particular has benefited from exchanging views with regulators from neighbouring countries such as Nigeria. As a result of this process, the Central Bank has recently submitted its Financial Consumer Protection Guidelines to Parliament for approval.

Next up: Engaging civil society in Ethiopia as part of our WDFI Advocacy Hub.