Gender and Geographical Disparities in Financial Inclusion in Rural sub-Saharan Africa: A Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition

Financial inclusion is considered a key driver of poverty reduction, economic development, and the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although researchers have examined gender and geographical financial inclusion, most studies have relied on cross-sectional analyses. To address this gap, we study rural gender gaps and rural–urban women gaps in financial inclusion for 19 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the 2017 and 2021 periods. We utilise the Global Findex databases, which contain the most detailed demand-side data collected at the individual level, and the Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) decomposition method to estimate the average differences in financial inclusion between groups and how they have changed over time and identify the factors contributing to these differences. The KOB decomposition has an advantage over traditional methods like ordinary least squares (OLS) in that it divides observed differences into three categories: explained components (e.g., education, labour force status, income), unexplained factors (interpreted as discrimination), and their interactions. We found the financial inclusion gap between urban and rural women over the period to be higher than the rural women and male gap. Given this, the significance of our findings is that, in addition to gender disparities, it is crucial to account for variances within the same gender, notably those between rural and urban women, when quantifying gaps and developing policies linked to financial inclusion. The endowment effect, including employment, years of schooling, and mobile phone ownership, dominates the financial inclusion gaps between gender and rural–urban women; bridging these endowments could potentially reduce gender and rural–urban disparities in financial inclusion in SSA.