Eighty percent of women agents provide a Government-to-Person (G2P) facilitation service, such as insurance registration, pension registration, scholarship registration, subsidy registration, and linking the Aadhaar card, among others. The range of services is much higher when compared to male agents (68%). This indicates that women agents are more likely to serve customers even if the transaction does not generate as much revenue 5.
In terms of business viability, at the country-level, women agents generate less revenue. However, they also incur less operating expenses when compared to their male counterparts. In rural areas, where almost 71% of the women agents operate, there is almost no difference in their profitability levels as opposed to male agents (see below graph).
Additionally, the proportion of women agents (33%) who incur losses or achieve break-even is actually a little lower than male agents (34%).
b) Providers do not offer similar levels of support to women agents
Women agents receive much less support from service providers. Only 8% of women agents have cash or e-money delivered to them (that is, they do not travel for it) as compared to 16% of male agents. A widowed woman agent in Kapurthala, Punjab observed, “there are training sessions that service providers conduct, but there is no such regular monitoring. I think it is important to be regularly monitored by the service providers. It is all the more important, especially for women – it makes things easier for us.”
c) Women agents face a lot more challenges
MicroSave’s
research indicates that women agents find it difficult to establish a good rapport with the staff of service providers, who are mostly male. For example, women agents cited instances where they struggle to get answers to their queries from the support staff. This results in forfeiting new opportunities that may arise from new services and products. Furthermore, women agents often cite challenges in handling a difficult customer, particularly men. Women agents emphasise that previous experience of dealing with customers is a prerequisite for running a successful agency business
6.
Way forward
It is time for financial service providers and policymakers to put policies and practices in place to ensure higher participation of women in their agent workforce. Here are a few points that could potentially make it happen:
|
1. More research will help us get granular data on women agents and the advantages they bring to the industry. There is a need to understand this space to create a more effective business and support case for women agents.
2. SHGs in the country offer value in terms of outreach and have a history of financial inclusion. Digital finance channels can make use of the SHG model, at scale, to get more women agents in villages. GIZ’s Rural Financial Institutions Programme’s (RFIP) and NABARD’s Bank Sakhi pilot has indicated positive results. However, neither initiative has scaled the engagement and management of SHGs as banking agents.
3. Policymakers can set gender-centric criteria to define an “adequate number or share” of women agents.
4. To bring parity in terms of onboarding efforts, monitoring, and support offered to male and female agents, we could think of introducing soft skills on gender sensitivity through agent training sessions imparted to male agents.
5. We could develop a model to approach women entrepreneurs from other sectors and motivate them to manage the agency business as non-dedicated agents. A classic example of such a model is the initiative by Karandaaz and Unilever in Pakistan, in which Unilever’s retail agents (Guddi Baajis) serve as agents,
6. It will be crucial to understand how we can utilise various government programmes that focus on women, such as ASHA, Anganwadi workers, and scholarships, to expand the base of women agents in the country.
|
In India, more than 137 million women are still excluded from formal financial services. There is evidence that women agents handle clients more professionally and perform at par with male agents in terms of business. In fact, women agents do more transactions and are preferred by women customers. These developments together indicate a business value proposition that we simply cannot ignore.
1The State of the Agent Network India 2017 report, based on the Agent Network Accelerator (ANA) Wave II survey, is a nationally representative study of the business correspondent (BC) agent network in India.
2Agents who offer digital financial services are known as business correspondent agents in India. We have referred to business correspondent agents (BCA) as agents and women BCAs as women agents.
3 Advanced active account users: Users who use a financial account for services other than basic or P2P services. In the FII study, in the case of mobile money, airtime top-ups are not considered an advanced use.
4 Dedicated agent – An agent who solely conducts agency banking business
5 The commission income from G2P facilitation is lower than CICO charges; MicroSave analysis and review of commission structure of providers in public domain.
6 The team conducted qualitative interaction with women agents during the fieldwork for ANA India Wave II