Aneta Krstevska: Gender financial inclusion helps to mobilize the available development potential of the economy

Skopje, 25 May 2023

"The first national Strategy for financial education and financial inclusion 2021 ‒ 2025, adopted by the National Bank together with other financial regulators, reveals the gaps in financial education and inclusion from various aspects, with a gender gap amongst them. It also proposes measures to deal with them", the Chief Economist of the National Bank", Aneta Krstevska said at a panel discussion within the framework of today's event, where the study of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Gender Dimensions of Investment Climate Reform (GRICA) in North Macedonia was promoted. According to the latest measurement by INFE-OECD, women have 53% and men 59% of the total points in knowledge of finances, thus the gender gap is 6 pp (against the average of 4 pp in the region). Starting from the fact that financial education is one of the prerequisites for greater financial inclusion, the Strategy envisages the creation of special trainings for women entrepreneurs. On average, in the period 2019 - 2022, at the educational lectures held bythe National Bank during the Financial Literacy Days, based on a public call to all interested persons, the participation of the female population prevails with 61%, which is certainly in favor of narrowing the gender gap in financial knowledge and better mobilization ofthe available development potential of the economy.

The National Bank makes strong efforts to support gender equality in the world of finance, by promoting and building equal opportunities for women and men and creating an inclusive financial system. The Central Bank, according to the Gender Balance Indexin Financial Institutions of the British Official Monetary and Financial Institutions ForumOMFIF, is a world leader in the representation of women in the management structure, pays particular attention to increasing financial literacy among women by increasing their knowledge and skills in the field of finance. The National Bank already has certain data on financial inclusion according to gender structure and will work on further improvement of statistics from a gender perspective, as a basis for making decisions, in order to ensure a more favorable business climate from a gender perspective.

The presented EBRD study contains an analysis of the factors that influence the investment climate from a gender perspective, and also provides support and guidance for further reforms in order to contribute to gender responsive investment climate in North Macedonia.