Digital Financial Inclusion and Gender Inequality: Structural Drivers and Financial Participation Gaps in Nigeria

Digital financial inclusion (DFI) plays an increasingly important role in expanding financial participation, improving access to payment systems, and supporting inclusive economic development. Yet substantial gender gaps in DFI remain a persistent challenge in many developing economies, including Nigeria. This study examines whether these gaps mainly reflect structural inequalities, particularly unequal access to digital connectivity and economic opportunity, rather than clear evidence of gender-specific behavioral responses between men and women. Using nationally representative microdata from the 2025 Global Findex survey, we analyze three sequential dimensions of DFI: digital account ownership, the use of any digital payment, and merchant digital payments. The empirical analysis combines logit and probit models with nonlinear Fairlie decompositions and interaction analysis focusing on education, income, employment, and internet access. Descriptive results show clear raw gender gaps at the earlier stages of digital financial participation. However, once socioeconomic characteristics and digital access are taken into account, the gender coefficient becomes statistically insignificant across the main specifications. The decomposition results indicate that between 79% and 94% of the observed gaps are statistically attributable to differences in endowments, with internet connectivity and labor market participation emerging as the most important contributors. The interaction results further show that education and connectivity are positively associated with digital financial participation for both men and women, with no clear evidence that these associations differ systematically by gender. Overall, the findings suggest that gender gaps in DFI in Nigeria are mainly associated with structural inequalities rather than clear evidence of gender-specific behavioral responses. The results carry important implications for financial inclusion policy, suggesting that efforts to narrow these gaps should consider not only wider digital access but also stronger support for women’s economic participation within a broader and more inclusive digital financial transition.