Does Your Board Know How to Lead Women's Financial Inclusion?

Author: Katrin Fakiri.

In 2022, the European Microfinance Award was on Financial Inclusion that Works for Women. As part of e-MFP’s priority to continue focus on Award topics beyond a particular year, and to welcome contributions from members, the following guest blog is by Katrin Fakiri, a recent e-MFP member, on what financial institutions can expect of Boards – and vice versa – when it comes to leading on financial inclusion for women.

Hundreds of studies confirm what we already know: financial inclusion for women drives better outcomes for institutions, clients, and communities. Women who control financial resources reinvest up to 90% back into their families and communities. Institutions that serve women borrowers consistently report lower default rates. Closing the gender gap in financial services represents one of the largest untapped market opportunities in global banking.

Yet despite this evidence, progress remains painfully slow. Products get designed. Campaigns get launched. Impact reports get written. And still, the needle barely moves.

From personal experience, strong governance along with product design, determines whether women’s financial inclusion efforts deliver lasting impact. It's not enough to design products for women or run inclusion campaigns. Without board-level oversight, without directors asking the right questions and receiving the right data, these efforts risk becoming performative.

If financial inclusion for women is truly a top priority, it must be tracked, measured, and governed accordingly.

The Governance Gap Nobody Talks About

Ask the leadership team in any financial institution about their commitment to women's financial inclusion. You'll get enthusiastic answers. Ask to see the board dashboard, which board committee has oversight, or what metrics were reviewed at the last board meeting, and you are not likely to get clear answers.

This is the governance gap. Structural failure to embed inclusion into the institution's accountability architecture, not a lack of will, is where most institutions fail.

A board that cannot measure women's financial inclusion cannot manage it. And a board that cannot manage it cannot lead it.

Boards set the tone for what gets taken seriously. When directors ask about inclusion metrics, management responds. When inclusion appears on board agendas alongside capital ratios and risk frameworks, it acquires institutional weight. When it doesn't, even the most passionate CEO is swimming upstream.

What Boards Must Understand First

Before boards can govern women's financial inclusion effectively, directors need a foundational understanding of what inclusion means in practice.

Women's financial exclusion is simultaneously a business risk and a missed opportunity. Regulatory environments globally are increasingly focused on fair access and equitable outcomes. Institutions that fail to demonstrate genuine progress face reputational, regulatory, and competitive exposure.

Directors should be able to answer seven baseline questions:

• What percentage of our loan portfolio, savings accounts, and insurance products are held by women?

• What is the approval rate disparity between male and female applicants, and how has it changed over three years?

• Are our product terms, collateral requirements, and digital access channels genuinely accessible to women in the markets we serve?

• What barriers do women customers most commonly report, and what concrete actions have we taken  in the last 12 months to address them?

•  What does our customer complaint data tell us about the experience of women customers specifically?

• Are our financial literacy or client engagement programs reaching women, and how do we know?

•  Where is our business case for women's inclusion, and what investment decisions has it actually changed?

If your board cannot answer these questions, you have identified the scale and scope of your task ahead. From that, here are six specific actions that boards can take to truly lead on women’s financial inclusion:

1. Assign Clear Oversight Responsibility

   Designate a specific board committee, whether the risk, audit, or a dedicated ESG or strategy committee with explicit responsibility for women's financial inclusion. Ensure the committee's terms of reference include oversight of gender-disaggregated data and progress against inclusion targets. Without a named committee and a named director champion, accountability is diffused.

   
   

2. Require Gender-Disaggregated Data as a Standard Reporting Item

   Management will report what boards ask for. If your board has never requested gender-disaggregated data on loan origination, account ownership, digital adoption, and product usage, the board has signaled that it is optional. Instead, make it mandatory. Require that every major management report to the board includes a gender lens. This single step reshapes what data management collects, how products are designed, and where resources are allocated.

   
   

3. Set Measurable Targets and Review Them Publicly

   Vague commitments produce vague results. Boards should approve specific, time-bound targets. For example, increasing the percentage of women loan applicants by 15% over two years, or achieving parity in digital account onboarding rates within 18 months. These targets should be disclosed in annual reports and investor communications. External accountability dramatically increases the likelihood of follow-through.

   
   

4. Integrate Inclusion into Executive Compensation

   Institutions move fastest on the metrics that are tied to pay. Boards that link a portion of executive compensation to measurable progress on women's financial inclusion will see it treated as a strategic priority rather than a compliance exercise. This is not a radical idea. Many leading institutions already tie executive pay to climate metrics, customer satisfaction, and employee diversity. Women's inclusion belongs in that same category.

   
   

5. Commission an Independent Inclusion Audit

   Boards should periodically commission an independent review of the institution's products, processes, and practices through a gender lens. This means examining credit scoring models for gender bias, assessing whether digital channels work for women with limited connectivity or shared devices, reviewing collateral requirements that may systematically disadvantage women, and evaluating branch and agent network accessibility for women in rural or conservative communities. The results of this audit should come directly to the board, not be filtered through management.

   
   

6. Build Board Competency on Financial Inclusion

   Directors cannot govern what they do not understand. Boards should invest in education sessions on gender and financial inclusion by bringing in external experts, hearing directly from women customers, and engaging with research on what works. Board composition itself matters. institutions with women directors and directors with lived experience of financial exclusion ask better questions and make better decisions. Board recruitment should treat inclusion expertise as a valued competency, not an afterthought.

From Compliance to Competitive Advantage

The gap between the institutions that say they care about women's financial inclusion and those that govern it is where the competitive opportunity lies. The institutions that will win in financial services over the next decade are those that identify and serve underserved markets better than their competitors.

Women in emerging markets and among lower-income segments represent the largest underserved market in the world. Boards that govern women's financial inclusion with the same seriousness they bring to credit risk and capital adequacy will build institutions that are more resilient, more profitable, and more trusted. They will attract better talent, stronger partnerships, and more loyal customers. The tools exist. The evidence exists. The business case is clear. What has been missing in too many boardrooms is the governance structure to turn intention into impact.

Additional Resources:

For practical guidance on implementing these principles, the CGAP Advancing Women's Financial Inclusion is an essential tool.

For ongoing governance insights in financial inclusion, subscribe to The Boardroom Brief on LinkedIn.

About the Author:

Katrin Fakiri is a board director, chair, and governance advisor with more than 20 years of experience in inclusive and development finance, MSME, and institutional leadership. She is the founder of Elucidate Board Services, where she supports boards and leadership teams on governance effectiveness, board development, and board performance. Her board experience includes current and past roles with organizations in Afghanistan, including Harakat, Shahy Khazana Microfinance, and Da Afghanistan Bank’s Supreme Council. Katrin brings a combination of boardroom judgment and executive leadership shaped by work across Afghanistan, Tunisia, the United States, and multiple African countries through the CFI African Board Fellowship Program. She holds an MBA from Barcelona Executive Business School and a BA in English Literature from San Jose State University.