Gender Mainstreaming in Business Correspondent Networks

Role: Editor

Grameen Foundation India’s Women Economic Empowerment report suggests that a woman BC agent serves a higher proportion of women customers, thereby addressing a critical gap. With the fundamental objective of facilitating financial inclusion, the BC network can no longer shy away from making a deliberate shift and a conscious choice of increasing women’s representation in the BC networks. Gender Inclusion within BC business serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it takes financial products and services to the last mile, bringing doorstep delivery and convenient access to services to women customers, the majority of who remain either excluded from or underserved by banking services. Secondly, having more women BCs as agents boosts employment opportunities at the community level, and also establishes these women as local role models as successful, influential, and respected entrepreneurs who deliver financial services to remote and underserved populations.