Here’s a number worth sitting with for a moment: 36.5% of Nigerian women had an account at a financial institution in 2024, compared with 74.3% of men. That’s according to the World Bank’s Global Findex, which tracks how adults around the world access and use financial services. (World Bank)
That is a gap of almost 38 percentage points. It is particularly striking when you consider how deeply women are already woven into Nigeria’s economy. Women run businesses, trade in markets, farm, provide services and support households across the country. The issue, then, isn’t whether Nigerian women are economically active; they clearly are. It is whether the financial system is giving them the same opportunity to turn that economic activity into savings, investment, business growth, and long-term financial security.
Why does the gap exist?
There isn’t one simple explanation for why fewer Nigerian women have formal financial accounts. Cultural expectations around household finances can play a role, as can differences in income, employment, and asset ownership. Women working in the informal economy also face practical challenges. A business can be profitable without formal accounts, registered premises, extensive financial records, or the kind of documentation conventional financial institutions have traditionally used to assess customers.
Access itself can be another barrier. Distance from financial institutions, mobility, safety concerns, and the competing demands of work and caregiving can make conventional banking less convenient. This is why financial inclusion isn’t simply a question of whether a bank exists in a community. It is also about whether people can realistically access its services and whether those services fit the way they actually live and earn.
Then there is the question of what happens after the account is opened. Having a bank account does not automatically mean having access to credit, investment opportunities or the capital needed to grow a business. Without a consistent financial history, it can be harder for an entrepreneur to demonstrate creditworthiness and qualify for formal financing. That can leave women relying on personal savings, family networks or informal sources of capital, even when their businesses have the potential to grow.
Nigeria’s wider financing landscape shows just how significant that challenge is. The Inclusive Capital Scorecard: GESI Baseline Survey, conducted by the Impact Investors Foundation and ecosystem partners, found that only $1.25 billion in gender-lens and inclusion-focused capital had been mobilised against an $8 billion target, leaving a $6.75 billion financing gap. Even more telling is the fact that only 16% of the capital was reaching women and other excluded groups. The report also identified just eight tailored financial products for women, youth and persons with disabilities against a target of 20. (World Bank)
Why closing the gap matters beyond fairness
It is easy to think of financial inclusion primarily as a question of fairness, and it certainly is one, but there is a much bigger economic argument for closing the gap. When people who are already participating in the economy cannot access appropriate financial products or growth capital, the economy loses some of the value those businesses and individuals could otherwise generate.
The GESI baseline illustrates another part of the problem. Among the businesses that participated in the survey, 91% reported alignment with GESI objectives, but only 41% had a formal GESI or ESG policy. Just 41% collected gender- and disability-disaggregated data. The picture is one of growing awareness without the institutional systems to support it consistently.
That distinction matters. Inclusion cannot stop at making financial services technically available. If women can open accounts but struggle to access suitable financing, or if businesses can apply for funding but don’t have the records required to qualify, the gap remains. A financial system can be accessible on paper and still be difficult to navigate in practice.
What’s changing?
Encouraging signs suggest the conversation is becoming more practical. Rather than focusing only on how to bring more people into the formal financial system, institutions are increasingly asking what they can do differently once people get there.
The GESI Baseline Survey provides an important starting point. It establishes where Nigeria’s impact-investing ecosystem currently stands against its gender equality and social inclusion commitments, while the GESI Roadmap provides a framework for improving performance over time. Its findings point to several priorities, including mobilising more inclusive capital, developing tailored financial products, increasing domestic investment and improving the systems used to measure inclusion.
Financial institutions are also experimenting with more targeted approaches. Althaven, The Alternative Bank’s women-only space in Abuja, is one example. It brings together coworking, community and banking services in an environment designed specifically around women and their businesses. Rather than treating banking as something separate from the other things entrepreneurs need, the concept places financial services alongside opportunities to work, connect, learn and build relationships.
Access is only the beginning
The World Bank data also gives us another reason to look beyond the traditional bank account. While 36.5% of Nigerian women had an account at a financial institution in 2024, the broader measure of account ownership, which includes mobile money, tells a different story. This reflects the growing role of digital financial services in helping people access financial tools outside the traditional branch model. (Digital Finance)
That shift matters in Nigeria, where distance, mobility, and convenience can influence how people use financial services. Digital channels can make it easier to receive payments, save, and transact without visiting a branch. But technology isn’t a magic fix. A woman may be able to receive payments digitally and still struggle to access business financing. She may have a savings account but lack the financial records required for financing.
This is why meaningful financial inclusion has to go beyond account ownership. It should give people the ability to save securely, make payments, build a financial history, access appropriate financing, and ultimately use those tools to improve their financial position.
What most financial institutions still need to get right
For financial institutions, closing the gender gap is therefore not simply a matter of creating products with the word “women” in the name. It requires understanding the circumstances of the customers those products are supposed to serve.
For women running informal or home-based businesses, that could mean simpler onboarding processes, more flexible approaches to assessing income and products that recognise the realities of irregular cash flow. It could also mean making financial education part of the customer experience rather than treating it as a separate programme that requires customers to find additional time.
The physical experience matters too. Banking spaces can feel intimidating when they are designed entirely around processes and transactions. Creating environments where customers can ask questions, meet other business owners and access support alongside financial services can make the experience considerably more approachable.
The GESI findings reinforce the need for this kind of product innovation. With only eight tailored financial products identified against a target of 20, there is still considerable room for financial institutions to rethink what inclusive finance should look like.
What can women do right now?
Structural change takes time, but individual women can take practical steps as well. Opening a formal bank account is a useful starting point, particularly for women who have previously relied entirely on cash or informal financial arrangements. From there, keeping personal and business transactions separate and maintaining basic records of income, expenses, and cash flow can help create a clearer financial history.
For a small business owner, these records may seem insignificant at first, but they can become useful evidence of business activity when opportunities for financing or partnerships arise. Building a consistent history of transactions and savings can also make it easier to understand how money moves through the business and where additional financing could genuinely make a difference.
Community can be just as valuable. Business networks, mentorship programmes, coworking spaces and organisations that actively support women entrepreneurs can provide access to information, relationships and opportunities that are difficult to develop in isolation. Sometimes the most useful financial inclusion intervention is not another product, but a place where someone can ask the right questions and find out what is available to them.
The bigger picture
Nigeria’s financial inclusion gap will not be closed by one bank, one programme or one policy. It will require sustained work from financial institutions, investors, policymakers and businesses, alongside better data to understand where exclusion persists and what interventions actually work.
The latest data gives us a clearer picture of the challenge. The World Bank’s figures show a substantial gender gap in financial account ownership, while the GESI Baseline Survey shows us the gender-lens capital target deficit.
These figures are ultimately about more than bank accounts and investment targets. They are about whether women who are already contributing to Nigeria’s economy have the financial tools to grow what they are building.
The opportunity now is to move from access to meaningful participation: from simply opening accounts to helping women save, invest, access capital, manage their businesses, and grow. Nigerian women are already part of the economy. The bigger question is how much more they could contribute if the financial system made it easier to participate fully.
For women looking to strengthen their financial foundation, whether through a bank account, business support, a workspace, or access to financial services, Althaven and AltBank’s personal banking solutions offer places to start.
