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Gender-Sensitive Financial Services
Understand and serve women customers and entrepreneurs fairly and profitably
Learn why women are underserved in Ethiopian finance, how to serve them without bias, and which products, channels and collateral alternatives fit their needs, using a woman-owned café in Adama as the running case.
Start the course
0 of 5 modules completed
What you will be able to do
- Describe the gender gap in Ethiopian financial inclusion and its causes
- Explain the business case for serving women as a market
- Serve women customers respectfully and effectively, avoiding bias
- Explain the bank's products and processes that suit women's needs, including cash-flow lending and movable collateral
- Apply the Ethiopian rules on non-discrimination, spousal consent and board gender diversity
- For
- Branch, retail and SME staff of Ethiopian banks and microfinance institutions, including customer service officers, relationship officers and junior credit officers. No prerequisites.
- Study time
- About 4 hours online, in 5 modules (16 hours in the classroom version)
- Each module
- Short lessons, animated visuals, Ethiopian examples, decisions to make, the laws and directives that apply and worked calculations, then a quiz
- Assessment
- A 20-question final exam; pass mark 70%
- Certificate
- Erudite Africa Center of Excellence certificate of completion
- Access
- Module 1 free for registered users; the full course, exam and certificate for subscribers
The 5 modules
- Module 01Free previewThe gender gap in Ethiopian financeSee where women are missing from Ethiopia's formal financial system, in accounts, credit and digital use, and why.7 lessons · 50 min · quiz
- Module 02The business case: women as a marketSee why serving women well is profitable banking: how women save, repay and stay loyal, and what the WEDP experience showed.6 lessons · 45 min · quiz
- Module 03Unconscious bias in service and creditRecognize the hidden assumptions that shape how staff serve women and judge their loans, and use simple tools to remove them.6 lessons · 55 min · quiz
- Module 04Serving women customersMake every channel work for women: respectful communication, a welcoming branch, flexible hours, women agents, safe mobile banking and literacy-friendly materials.6 lessons · 50 min · quiz
- Module 05Products, collateral alternatives and the rulesKnow the products that fit women, from savings and group loans to cash-flow SME loans, movable collateral and interest-free options, apply the rules on consent and non-discrimination, and redesign the Adama café loan.7 lessons · 65 min · quiz
- Officer simulationA month as women's banking officer at Bank A, Dessie branchWork as women's banking and sme relationship officer: 11 real-life items, decisions with consequences and a hand-over note. Pass with 70% to qualify for the certificate.
- Final examFinal exam and certificate20 applied questions across all 5 modules. Pass with 70% to download your certificate.
Built on
- Erudite Africa training module: Ethiopian Context, topic 4.f Gender-Sensitive Financial Services, Level 1 (October 2026)
- World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab with the NBE: Making Ethiopia's Financial Sector Work for Women (March 2024)
- National Financial Inclusion Strategy II (2021 to 2025), the NFIS-III refresh and the Women's Financial Inclusion Scorecard (NBE with the World Bank)
- NBE Proclamation No. 1359/2025 and NBE directives as listed in the lessons: SBB/91/2024, SBB/72/2019, NBE/INT/13/2026, Instruction FCPED/142/26; consumer protection rules reported as FCP/01/2020
- A commercial bank's Revised Credit Procedure Manual (August 2025), unnamed, including its references to Proclamation No. 1147/2019 and Directive MCR/01/2020
Examples and organizations are fictional. Apply your own organization's approved policies.