American Philanthropist, Melinda Gates, has recently expressed her views on Digital Financial Inclusion of women in Africa. Melinda urges G7 to work on digital empowerment of women and help them prosper. She claims that it is fundamental for women to be involved in Digital Finance.
G7 is a group of seven countries which meet annually to discuss political, global, security and social issues. These seven countries include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The 44th G7 summit conducted in France in 2019 revealed the Digital Financial Inclusion of women in Africa, which was quite shocking.
Digital Financial services include having a digital bank account on mobile phone and having online transactions. The report expresses the alarming number of women who don’t have a bank account and don’t use internet banking on a regular basis. Melinda Gates comments on taking this issue seriously, and not as a minor step to the development of society.
Through several interviews, the 54-year-old has spoken about the importance of women using smartphones to exchange money. She says despite Kenya being the first-ever country to conduct mobile money transaction in mid-2000, the women are far from being enlightened.
Women often don’t have a phone to conduct these money transactions, which is the major obstacle. Giving them the knowledge of internet banking will not only bring awareness among women, but it will also empower them and make them independent.
In order to gain the goal of getting as many female digital financial users, Melinda has suggested strict following of regulations by the respective organizations. This will help to bring women into the formal economy of the country.
The first thing that would have come to anyone’s mind when seeing the ‘Gates’ surname is, “Another rich person trying to gain publicity in the name of charity”. But that is not the case with Melinda Gates. She has dedicated the past 20 years of her life to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation is the largest private foundation in the world, holding half a billion in assets. This organization works on building healthy and productive lives for people. The organization has created a global fund to help the poor. She sure has some strong opinions regarding women empowerment, which she proudly expresses.
