Women make up majority of 800m unbanked Muslim population
Published 21 Dec,2020 via Arab News - Economy - Women make up the majority of the 800 million global Muslim population who are unbanked (people without a bank account), according to a digital banking firm, leaving them without basic financial services, and putting their social rights at risk.
Zeiad Idris, the CEO of UK-based digital banking platform Algbra, told Arab News that it is common in Muslim communities for men to take charge of the household’s finances. “In our (Muslim) communities it’s not uncommon for the male member of the family to hold the bank account in their name and control the family’s finances,” he said, adding that empowering women by giving them ease of access to financial services would lead to enhanced economic development.
Research published by the World Economic Forum has found that gender inequality is higher in countries that have low GDPs. According to Algbra, 29 percent more women are unbanked in Bangladesh compared to men, while in Egypt the difference is 11 percentage points.
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