Financial Inclusion and Women Economic Empowerment in Ghana

Abstract

Although the impact of micro-credit and direct cash transfers on women economic empowerment has been extensively studied. The impact of just having either a formal or informal bank account remains relatively understudied. This paper uses a detailed national representative data of female household heads in Ghana to analyze how having a formal and informal bank account economically empowers women. Using propensity score matching, our results elicit that having a bank account encourages women to be employed and also increases their per capita income. The results also indicate that, the level of education and sector of employment positively contributes to women’s economic empowerment. Additionally, the result reveal that female household heads living in the cities are more economically empowered than their counterpart living in the rural areas. Keywords: Financial Inclusion · Women Economic Empowerment · Gender Equality · Ghana Jel Codes : D14, D63, G21, G22, O12, O16