Key Evidence

Despite significant progress, a persistent gender gap in mobile phone and internet access means women enter the DFS ecosystem from a position of structural disadvantage. In some markets, the ownership gap between men and women exceeds 40 percentage points. 

• Across LMICs, women are 16% less likely than men to have access to mobile phones and to use mobile internet, mobile money, and other mobile services. Reasons include low levels of literacy and digital skills, access to handsets and affordable DFS, and restrictive social norms. (World Bank, n.d.)
• Although 83% of women in LMICs now own a mobile phone, 61% own a smartphone, and 63% use mobile internet, access remains unequal. The top reported barriers to mobile internet adoption are affordability and literacy. Women with low literacy, low incomes, or who live in rural areas are especially excluded. (GSMA, 2025)

Regional data reveals wide variation in the scale of this barrier, with South Asia facing some of the most acute gender gaps in mobile ownership globally, while Sub-Saharan African markets show more varied progress.

• In Rwanda, rural women are the least likely segment of the population to own a mobile phone, use a smartphone, and use mobile internet. Only 14% of rural women use mobile internet compared to 29% of rural men, 54% of urban men, and 47% of urban women. (GSMA, 2025)
• Mobile phones are essential for accessing digital financial services, but women in LMICs are 9 percentage points less likely than men to own a phone, causing mobile phone gaps to remain a major barrier to financial inclusion. In Pakistan, 89% of men have a mobile phone, compared to 24% of women. Countries like India, Egypt, and Ethiopia with stronger mobile access, gender gaps of 14-25 percentage points persist. (CGAP, 2025)

Mobile phone access does not equal mobile phone ownership: hundreds of millions of women rely on borrowed or shared devices, limiting their ability to engage with DFS independently, privately, and consistently.

• About 200 million low-income individuals—a majority of whom are women—use shared phones in LMICs. As a result, women's digital footprint is lost and cannot be used as an indicator of behavior; women also lose out on the benefits of secure, private digital payments that eliminate the need for travel. (Women’s World Banking, 2020; GSMA, 2025).
• Most unbanked adults worldwide own mobile phones, suggesting that millions of women have national IDs and digital tools but lack financial accounts. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of women own phones and 65% have IDs, but only 50% have financial accounts. In India, high account access among women does not directly translate to high usage due to employment and phone usage gaps. (CGAP, 2025)

Even among women who access mobile phones, use case depth varies significantly — with many women using devices primarily for calls rather than data or financial services, limiting the pathway from phone access to meaningful DFS adoption.

• Phone borrowing is most common in Pakistan, where 35% of women who use mobile internet do not own an internet-enabled phone, compared to 6% of men. Women who use the internet on someone else's phone are less likely to use it daily or for a range of activities. (GSMA, 2025)

The shift toward smartphone-based DFS risks deepening exclusion for women, who are significantly less likely to own a smartphone than men, and for whom the cost of upgrading represents a prohibitive barrier to accessing app-based services.

• Smartphones offer a range of business use cases that basic phones do not. However, 230 million fewer women than men across LMICs own smartphones, and as of 2025, smartphone adoption has slowed. In Uganda, women micro-entrepreneurs are 32% less likely than male counterparts to own a smartphone; barriers include lack of perceived relevance, safety concerns, and limited digital skills. (GSMA, 2025)
• Gender gaps in smartphone ownership vary significantly by country (48 percentage points in Pakistan vs. near parity in the Philippines). In Nigeria, women's smartphone ownership increased from 32% in 2023 to 39% in 2024, narrowing the gender gap from 38% to 23%. In contrast, gaps remained flat or widened in Pakistan, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Ethiopia, India, and Guatemala. (GSMA, 2025)