Are Mobile Savings the Silver Bullet to Help Women Grow Their Businesses?
In Tanzania and Indonesia, we promoted the expansion of mobile savings accounts among women micro-entrepreneurs and provided them with business related training. In doing so, we simultaneously relaxed supply- and demand side constraints to savings...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/512121538488834978/Are-Mobile-Savings-the-Silver-Bullet-to-Help-Women-Grow-Their-Businesses http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30496 |
| Summary: | In Tanzania and Indonesia, we promoted
the expansion of mobile savings accounts among women
micro-entrepreneurs and provided them with business related
training. In doing so, we simultaneously relaxed supply- and
demand side constraints to savings that women might face. In
both countries, the training enhanced the impact of
promoting mobile savings. In Indonesia it led women to save
more overall, including a nascent use of mobile accounts,
and report greater decision making power within the
household. In Tanzania, it led to substantially higher
mobile savings, new businesses and products, more capital
investment, labor effort, and better business practices.
However, these short-term impacts have yet to translate into
higher business profits. In Indonesia, we observe increased
household welfare, but no discernible effects on business
outcomes shortly after the training ended. In Tanzania, the
increased business investments were not accompanied by
greater profitability. |
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