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From gig work to financial empowerment: Embedded finance for women in the platform economy
A gender-intentional approach can increase the adoption of DFS among female informal workers through embedded finance.
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On wheels: Female online motorbike taxi drivers participate in a motorcade organized by the East Java government in Surabaya on April 21, 2024 as part of Kartini Day, a day dedicated to the fight for gender equality. (Antara/Trisnadi)
S
ari, a 32-year-old woman and a mother of two children in Jakarta, starts her day early. She handles household chores and prepares her children for school. By mid-morning, she logs into her ride-hailing platform, ready to start another work day.
Like many women in Indonesia, Sari depends on the flexibility of gig work to support her family. Whether she picks up passengers or makes deliveries, her earnings are vital for the household.
Sari is one of many individuals who rely on platforms for their income. In 2022, digital platforms onboarded around 20 million MSMEs, feeding into Indonesia’s MSME Go Digital vision. Gojek and Grab, the two leading ride-hailing platforms, each supported around 2 million drivers.
In Indonesia, women make up 66 percent of the country’s 84 million informal workers and play a vital role in driving small-scale enterprises and supporting their families through casual labor and self-employment.
A recent study by MSC, in collaboration with the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, highlights that despite existing challenges, the platform economy has improved women’s access to digital financial services (DFS).
The study reveals that around 52 percent of female informal workers started to use m-banking or digital payments specifically for work requirements. This is significantly higher than the national average of 15 percent. It highlights digital platforms’ potential to improve financial inclusion among women in the informal sector.
This article looks into the suitability of embedded finance as an approach to improving women’s financial inclusion and recommends ways for stakeholders to design embedded finance for female informal workers.
