In this post on the INCLUDE blog, Professor Peter van Bergeijk and ISS alumni Diane Irankuna discuss policies in Rwanda to alleviate poverty. Their analysis focusses on individual characteristics and their importance in actual use of financial accounts.
Policy makers in Rwanda are targeting formal financial inclusion ('having a financial account') as part of the strategy to alleviate poverty. However, their research shows that the actual use of financial accounts should become the focus of policy.
Background interviews with local officials revealed their believe that individual characteristics are not important for the formal decision to accept an individual as an account holder at a financial institution.
Their analysis, however, supports the importance of gender for the use of bank accounts by the self-employed in the informal sector – with clear implications for targeting policies.
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INCLUDE is a Dutch-African platform that promotes evidence-based policymaking on inclusive development in Africa through research, knowledge sharing and policy dialogue.