The African Development Bank,(AFDB) has approved two grants of$1.3 million for research aimed to increase African women’s access to a range of digital financial services, including loans and micro- insurance.
The bank in a statement on Monday said the grants for $1million and $300,000 respectively, will be disbursed through the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI).
ADFI is a pan- African initiative designed to accelerate digital financial inclusion throughout Africa.
It is a blended finance facility of AFDB with two financial technology firms,Pula Advisors Kenya Ltd, and M- Kopa Kenya Ltd.
Pula Advisors will use the$1 million for research of social, cultural and economic factors that impact women farmers access to micro- insurance in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.
M- Kopa would use the$300,000 grant funding for research involving 250 women and 250 men in Kenya’s Kisumu, Eldoret and Machakos counties.
The bank’s coordinator for ADFI said “the grant funding will be used to leverage technology to develop innovative and responsive loan and insurance products that can spur productivity and Inclusion, especially for our women, smallholder farmers and traders”.
The project which is in three phases,product development, piloting and scaling is expected to benefit 360,000 farmers,50 per cent of them women,as well as boost farm yields by up to 30 per cent
It is also aimed to raise income and enhance household and national food security.
