Determinants of Financial Inclusion among Women Petty Trader's in Dodoma City

Abstract

This paper assesses the determinants of financial inclusion among women petty traders in Dodoma city. Specifically, the paper examines women petty traders’ status of using formal accounts, formal savings, formal credit, and mobile money accounts and socioeconomic determinants of financial inclusion. The paper employed a cross-sectional research design whereby structured and semi-structured interviews and documentary review methods were used for data collection. Non-probability sampling techniques were employed to select a sample of 200 women petty traders. Data analysis employed in this study included both inferential and descriptive analysis. The result of the study indicates that the majority of women petty traders use mobile money accounts, and use informal savings (save money at home, through VICCOBA/ person outside the home), also they lack enough money for opening/maintaining a formal account. The binary probit model result indicates that age, years of schooling, household size, marital status, lack of required documents, costs of financial service, and income are significant determinants of financial inclusion. Therefore, financial institutions should offer basic or low-fee accounts with a reduced/simplified documentation requirement. Government payment should be conducted through banks to promote savings in formal financial institutions and promote financial literacy, and data on financial inclusion among women petty traders should be collected and analyzed to promote the formulation of evidence-based policy