For decades, microfinance has celebrated women as its most reliable borrowers. Across markets, women consistently show higher repayment rates, stronger group discipline, and deeper commitment to their families’ wellbeing.
But a closer look reveals a more nuanced picture; women borrowers are not a uniform group. Many act as joint decision-makers within their households, with varying degrees of financial confidence, entrepreneurial ambition, and autonomy. Treating them as a single client segment is a strategic error that causes financial service providers to miss the women most ready for greater economic leadership.
With support from The Coca-Cola Foundation, Accion and the SAJIDA Foundation partnered on a project in Bangladesh to identify opportunities to ensure that women clients have access to credit products tailored to their needs and aligned with their repayment capacity by using data-driven risk models. SAJIDA’s primary focus is to provide women with adequate access to financial services, enabling them to leverage these products to grow their businesses. By doing so, they not only strengthen their own economic empowerment but also create positive impacts for their families and communities.
As part of our shared commitment to strengthening women’s financial inclusion, SAJIDA and Accion examined how women borrowers actually experience credit and what more financial institutions can do to meaningfully support them. Our research highlights a reality that the financial inclusion sector rarely confronts directly: access to credit does not always translate into meaningful economic agency for women.
When access to finance masks unequal control
Many women borrowers we interviewed, including SAJIDA clients and non-clients, were listed as the official loan recipients. But decisions about how the money was used, whether for a business investment, household expense, or migration-related costs, were often made by husbands or other male family members.
In some cases, the women themselves described their role as limited to facilitating access to the loan and managing repayments. Larger financial decisions within the household remained male-dominated.
This dynamic creates an uncomfortable but important reality: a loan issued in a woman’s name does not necessarily mean she is the one making decisions about it. While the income generated may benefit the household as a whole, women often have limited influence over how the loan is used or repaid, leaving them formally responsible for a debt without meaningful financial agency.
Women’s financial inclusion, when measured solely by access, can sometimes obscure this gap between participation and agency.
As the industry continues to expand financial access for women, it may be time to ask a deeper question: are we truly serving women as economic actors, or are they simply an instrument for channeling resources?
The women behind the numbers
Our research showed that this dynamic is not universal. When we looked more closely at the social and household contexts in which women operate, a different picture began to emerge. Many women are not simply channels for household borrowing; they are active economic actors with ambitions to start or grow businesses of their own. The question for financial service providers is how to recognize and support these women more intentionally.
Among SAJIDA’s clients, we observed several distinct behavioral profiles. Some women were cautious savers, prioritizing financial security and using credit only during emergencies. Others were actively involved in family enterprises such as tailoring, livestock rearing, or small retail businesses. A smaller but significant segment were growth-oriented entrepreneurs seeking larger loans to expand income-generating activities.
What differentiated these segments was not only their financial behavior, but also their level of confidence, autonomy, and participation in household financial decisions. Women who were more actively engaged in their own enterprises were also more likely to participate in discussions about taking larger loans, planning investments, or expanding businesses. In these households, financial decisions were more collaborative, and women were better positioned to use credit directly for productive activities.
Treating women as a single, uniform client segment risks overlooking these differences. More importantly, it prevents financial service providers from identifying women who are ready to take a more active role in economic decision-making and from designing financial services that support that transition. Understanding women’s entrepreneurial characteristics is therefore a critical step if the industry wants to move from simply lending to women toward genuinely supporting women-led economic activity.
The confidence gap in digital and financial tools
Another insight from the research highlights an important barrier that financial institutions must address if women are to fully benefit from financial services: the gap between access to financial tools and the confidence to use them.
Many women had access to smartphones through spouses or children, yet their use of digital services remained limited to basic communication, such as voice calls or video chats. Only a small number reported using phones for digital payments, online commerce, or financial management.
Similarly, while most women borrowers interacted regularly with microfinance institutions, very few could clearly explain the loan products they had taken or the terms associated with them. Many relied heavily on field officers for information about loan options, repayment structures, or product features. This reliance highlights an important challenge for the industry. True financial inclusion requires more than product availability. It requires building the knowledge, confidence, and agency that enable customers to make informed financial decisions.
The opportunity that financial institutions may be overlooking
Despite these challenges, the research also points to an enormous opportunity.
Across interviews, many women demonstrated strong entrepreneurial instincts and clear aspirations. Some hoped to expand tailoring businesses, invest in livestock, or open small retail shops. Others were saving diligently to support children’s education or to finance migration opportunities for family members.
In other words, the potential for women-led economic growth is already there.
What is often missing are the conditions that allow women to invest directly in their own ambitions, rather than operating within constraints shaped by household dynamics, limited financial literacy, or lack of business support. These include access to information about financial products, the confidence and skills to manage financial tools, and financial services designed around the scale and nature of women-led businesses.
For financial service providers, this represents a strategic opportunity. Women entrepreneurs are not only reliable borrowers; they are also capable business builders when given the right tools and support.
Insights from this research are already helping inform how SAJIDA continues to refine its approach to lending to women, strengthening credit assessment tools, and exploring ways to better identify women who are ready to grow their own enterprises.
Moving from access to agency
If the next chapter of financial inclusion is to truly advance women’s economic empowerment, the sector may need to look beyond traditional metrics.
Institutions often describe themselves as gender-focused simply because the majority of their clients are women. But deeper questions remain: are financial products designed around women’s aspirations? Do institutions understand how financial decisions are actually made within households? And are they measuring whether women have real influence over how financial resources are used?
The collaboration between Accion and SAJIDA Foundation in Bangladesh reflects an effort to explore these questions more deeply. By combining customer research with innovations such as improved credit scoring models and more tailored lending approaches, SAJIDA is working to better understand the financial journeys of its women clients and to create fairer pathways for them to access larger, more appropriate credit.
When financial institutions move beyond simply reaching women and begin designing systems that recognize their agency, they unlock not only more inclusive finance but also the full economic potential of the women they serve.
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