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Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates during the virtually held Singapore FinTech Festival on Tuesday said that women play a key role in ensuring finances trickle down to other aspects of society, CNBC reported.
The Microsoft founder suggested that governments and businesses should work towards helping all members of society access financial services by channeling their resources towards women.
“It’s absolutely critical. The benefits of getting the money under her control mean that it’s more likely to be used for nutrition and education and things that will drive that family out of poverty,” said Gates, adding that women are typically responsible for family-supporting finances.
According to the World Economic Forum report, financial inclusivity, which refers to granting more people access to financial services, continues to be one of the key challenges for communities globally.
The report revealed that only 35 per cent of people in low-income countries have access to a bank account. That compares to 58 per cent to 73 per cent in upper- to lower-middle-income countries, and 94 per cent in high-income countries. The percentage remains abysmally low among women. “You know, it’s important to remember how far away we are from universal financial inclusion,” added Gates.
Gates, founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said that his foundation is funding digital identity solutions, such as India-based MOSIP, openly accessible software that allows governments to create digital identities for their citizens to help distribute resources, in order to encourage financial inclusivity.
So far, reception to such technologies in countries ranging from Nigeria and Ethiopia to Indonesia has been high, Gates revealed. “We think over the next five years, most of the central banks will say okay, they can do this, because most of the building blocks are accessible and there’s almost a straightforward way that they can get their citizens all connected up,” he said.
Gates said that his foundation aims to bring financial inclusion to two-thirds of the global population within 10 years.
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