By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The chief executive of Moniepoint Incorporated, Mr Tosin Eniolorunda, has said it’s more profitable to serve women than their male counterparts.
Speaking at the second International Financial Inclusion Conference 2024 organized by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other critical stakeholders, he said women entrepreneurs have proven to be diligent and enhance profitability.
He disclosed that based on data harvested from the Moniepoint platform, “women-owned businesses are more likely to stay active and show higher engagement rates in financial transactions.”
According to him, in cases where financial support has been extended—through investments, KYC compliance, or the provision of tools like point-of-sale devices—female-led businesses have a 7.2 per cent higher activity rate than their male counterparts while looking at the gender relations with credit products, “women-owned businesses have an 87.5 per cent lower loan non-performance rate (NPL) than male-owned enterprises.”
He submitted at the event themed Inclusive Growth: Harnessing Financial Inclusion for Economic Development that for financial inclusion to be sustainable, especially for women, it must no longer be treated as a buzzword, charitable social activity or a checklist to be marked.
Mr Eniolorunda noted that financial service providers play a vital role in supporting gender-inclusive finance and that by collecting and analysing data on gender trends in small business performance, they can craft better policies, targeted products, and support services that encourage more women entrepreneurs.
Echoing similar sentiments, his counterpart at the Credit Registry, Ms Jameelah Sharrieff-Ayedun, said, “90 per cent of women’s income that they receive goes back to the communities and their families as such when women have access to credit, the community is enhanced, families are better off which is why it’s important that they can access this funding.”
In her summation, the Deputy Governor of the CBN for Operations, Ms Emem Usoro acknowledged some of the structural challenges that might require time and resources to be addressed including cultural practices and less systemic ones such as distance to financial services providers that stifle the participation of women-owned businesses, while signposting the power of data to catalyze inclusive growth and its viability for economic planning.