Financial and digital inclusion survey and workshops

We worked with Professor Lawrence Ezemonye, Professor Deborah Odejimi and Dr Patience Ozor. In 2021, they surveyed 600 women in the Niger-Delta region.

The EMMA campaign was expanded into the north-central and south-west regions of Nigeria. This happened in 2023 due to securing another LJMU grant to continue the project.

Professor Sylvia Uzochukwu and Dr Obiajulu Emma-Ebere of Federal University of Oye-Ekiti joined our team for the south-west region survey collection. We implemented the same surveys and collected data from female street traders in semi-rural areas of those regions.

In total, we surveyed 1,700 women micro/street traders. We provided two more literacy workshops (one in North-Central and one in the South-South) in 2024. Both workshops were very well-received.

Survey results

The results revealed barriers including poor internet connection, expensive data and concerns about the security of mobile banking.

Due to these very high percentages, we designed a financial and digital literacy campaign. This became the EMMA (Electronic Moni Matta) campaign.

EMMA also refers to a female name, thus highlighting our desire to support women and reduce the gender gap in financial technology.

Our campaign raises awareness among female street traders of the benefits of using digital financial payments. It improves their financial and digital literacy through workshops held in June 2023.

Smartphones were provided to all participants. This enabled the female traders to make digital financial payments from their own phones going forward.