FRC, CAWEE say working to back efforts to enhance digital financial services access to women in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, June 19, 2024 (FBC) – The Finnish Refugee Council (FRC) and the Center for Accelerated Women’s Economic Empowerment (CAWEE), in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), organized a workshop aims at improving digital financial services (DFS) access to women in Ethiopia.

Members of Health and Social Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Peoples Representatives, government officials, representatives of women associations, members of associations working on peoples with disabilities, heads of financial institutions, principals of schools and technical and vocational education training institutions and leadership of microfinance institutions were present at the workshop held in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

During the workshop, Findings of the study conducted in various regions of the country focusing on the challenges women are facing in the digital financing sector were presented and recommendations crucial to address the problems were tabled accordingly.

On the occasion, Mulatwa Mathewos, Program Manager at FRC, stated that the organization is undertaking various activities to promote functional adult literacy and financial among refugees and host communities to enable women better access digital financial services in the country.

She said the activities being undertaken by FRC are supportive to the national efforts to enhance digital financial services, pledging to address more areas to the initiative.

Dr. Nigist Haile, Executive Director of CAWEE, for her part, noted that her organization is working to empower women engaged in trade and investment sectors in the country, and boost their competitiveness at the global level, calling the forum instrumental in adding impetus to their future endeavors in this regard.

Dr. Nigist pointed out that the study conducted in target regions of the county and the respective findings helped gain significant insights from refugees, host communities and women in business towards accelerating the efforts towards improved digital financial services access for women in the country.

Hiwot Taye, Grievance Manager at the Ethiopian National ID, said that the recommendations raised at the forum would be inputs for her institution in its efforts to improving access to digital services through implementation of Fayda ID.

She underscored the need for concerted efforts to help refugees, host communities and people with low-literacy status gain access to Digital ID so that they can easily access digital financial services which are now on progress in the country.