Empowering Finance: How Posts and fintechs can advance digital financial inclusion for ALL women and girls
On International Women’s Day 2025, the UPU and its partners will explore how the postal sector can bridge the gender gap in digital financial inclusion. As the main event highlight, the UPU will unveil its latest research, “Post-fintech partnerships to overcome gender inequality through access to postal digital financial services,” offering fresh insights into how collaboration can drive real impact. Experts from the postal and fintech sectors will come together to discuss key findings, explore gender-inclusive financial solutions, and drive action to make digital finance a tool for empowerment.
- Date and time : 12 March 2025, 14.00 - 15.30 (CET)
- Format: Online on Zoom (click here to register) / Live stream on UPU TV from here.
Wednesday, 12 March 2025, 14:00 - 15:30
Online via Zoom
Background
Women’s digital financial inclusion is not just an economic necessity – it is the foundation of a resilient, sustainable, and just world. Yet today, nearly one in five women globally remain excluded from the formal financial system. Without their full participation, humanity remains far from achieving gender equality, a cornerstone of economic and social progress.
The postal sector – trusted, accessible, and deeply embedded in communities – can serve as a crucial driver for change. However, Posts often require the right partnerships, technology, and investment to fully leverage their potential. Fintech collaboration is key. Around the world, postal operators are already offering mobile money services, facilitating e-commerce payments, and extending small loans. These innovations show that when Posts and fintechs work together, financial services can reach women as a priority, not an afterthought.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which calls for ensuring that all women have access to financial services and decision-making power within financial institutions. More recently, the Pact for the Future and its Global Digital Compact have reinforced the urgency of digital inclusion. Women’s economic and digital empowerment are deeply interwoven – when one advances, the other follows.
Event highlights
The event will begin with the launch of the study (* see below for more information about the study), followed by a panel discussion featuring international experts from the postal sector, government bodies responsible for postal policy and regulation, fintech, and digital financial service providers, and the UPU. The discussion will include testimonials from women who have benefited from postal digital financial services, along with a Q&A session with the audience.
Speakers
- Opening remarks: Masahiko Metoki, UPU Director General and International Gender Champion (via video recording)
- Sahana Arun Kumar, Partner & Managing Director, Amarante Consulting – lead research consultant behind the study’s key insights and needs analysis
- Zakia Hazzaz, International Cooperation Director, Al Barid Bank (Morocco)
- Cecilia Sylvester Mkoba, Postal Services Manager, Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA)
- More speakers to be confirmed
Moderator: Ian Kerr, host of the UPU Voice Mail podcast
Discussion topics
- What makes a financial service truly gender-responsive?
- How are postal networks contributing to women's digital financial inclusion, and what successful models can be scale up?
- What are the biggest barriers to postal-driven financial inclusion, and how can they be overcome?
- How can posts and fintech companies collaborate to design and expand accessible solutions for women?
- What role should policymakers and regulators play in scaling up these solutions?
* About the study: The UPU’s study “Post-fintech partnerships to overcome gender inequality through access to postal digital financial services” (2025), sponsored by Visa and the Gates Foundation, explores how postal networks can collaborate with fintechs to bridge the gender gap in digital financial inclusion. Based on extensive literature review, expert interviews, surveys with postal operators and fintech firms, and focus group discussions with 125 women in six countries, it examines the current landscape of women’s financial exclusion, the potential of postal-fintech collaborations, and existing regulatory frameworks. The research identifies four key groups of financially excluded women – non-working women, informal entrepreneurs, formally employed women, and women farmers – and outlines targeted digital financial service (DFS) solutions for each. It provides practical recommendations for Posts and fintechs to develop scalable, sustainable, and inclusive DFS models, ensuring that no woman is left behind in the digital economy.