Key Evidence

Instant payment systems (IIPS) have strong potential to advance women’s financial inclusion by enabling faster, more reliable digital transactions. However, without intentional design, these systems tend to benefit users who are already included.

Governance is a key upstream lever for gender-intentional IIPS.

• The World Bank’s Fast Payments Governance Guidance recommends governance structures that incorporate the interests of all stakeholders, including end users—not just formal participants. It emphasizes that end users should be treated as the “ultimate service beneficiaries,” highlighting the need for governance frameworks that correct for exclusionary system optimization. (World Bank, 2025)
• The L1P Women’s Inclusion Toolkit, designed specifically for IIPS, provides practical guidance on integrating gender across governance, scheme design, identity and onboarding, and consumer protection. It emphasizes inclusive ownership structures and feedback mechanisms that embed women’s voices in system design and decision-making, and offers concrete approaches for payment system operators to design for inclusion from the start. (Level One Project, 2025)

Scheme design choices shape whether women can access and benefit from IIPS

• IPS adoption is higher in systems that allow non-bank participation and support a wider range of use cases, expanding provider diversity and competition. Women are more likely to rely on local, smaller, and non-bank providers; restrictive participation requirements or high scheme fees can therefore create a coverage gap, even where rails exist. (BIS, 2024; Level One Project, 2025) 
• Interoperability and low, transparent fees reduce switching costs, increase competition, and lower transaction costs—key constraints for cost-sensitive users. Where interoperability is limited, women report moving money between networks by withdrawing and redepositing cash—incurring additional time and cost burdens compared to interoperable systems. (Caribou, Caribou Digital, and DFS Labs)
• Affordability is a binding constraint for women, with low-income women facing higher relative cost barriers and having less discretionary income than men. Evidence from Kenya shows women may pay more in certain P2P fees per transaction, suggesting pricing structures can be regressive by gender. Ultra-low scheme fees can reduce pressure on providers to pass costs on to end users. (Caribou, Caribou Digital, and DFS Labs)

Identity, onboarding, and device/channel realities determine who can transact—and who can transact safely

• Digital identity, instant payments, and data exchange systems often evolve in parallel rather than in an integrated way, creating onboarding friction. Greater interoperability between identity and payment systems can reduce repeated verification requirements, streamline onboarding, and reduce fraud and misdirected payments.For women, this improves both access (account opening) and trust (safer ongoing use). (World Bank, 2026) 
• Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the lowest ID ownership rates globally. Gender gaps in ID ownership are concentrated in West and East Africa (averaging five percentage points) and most pronounced in the economies with the lowest overall rates. In Niger, for example, only 43 percent of women have ID compared with 63 percent of men. Across the region, 15 percent of adults without an account cite lack of documentation as a barrier to opening one. women are 5 percentage points more likely than men to not have an ID—blocking account opening and even SIM acquisition where ID is required. (World Bank, 2025)

Safety, consumer protection, and recourse are essential to women’s sustained use of IIPS.

• Instant payments increase fraud and error risk due to real-time execution and settlement finality. Because women are more likely to lose trust after fraud or failed transactions and disengage when complaint processes are inadequate,weak recourse mechanisms can disproportionately reduce women’s continued usage, even where adoption occurs. (Level One Project, 2025)

Inclusion strengthens system sustainability

• L1P research identifies a “scale imperative,” highlighting women’s participation as a key driver of transaction volumes in digital payment ecosystems. Higher transaction volumes strengthen network effects, which reduce per-transaction costs, improve system affordability, attract a broader range of providers, and enable continued investment in new products and services. (Level One Project, 2025)