This gap is especially pronounced in the upper echelons of decision-making structures where women make up 28% of board membership and a third of senior management with limited participation beyond marketing positions; 2. The number of borrowers was dominated by men. The number of men with loan accounts in every 1,000 adults was 27 at the end of 2014 compared to 12 for women; 3. When it comes to paying back of loans, women had better repayment behaviour than men. The percentage of non-performing loans for women averaged 4.3% compared to 4.9% for men. Further, women-owned small business accounts exhibited the lowest percentage of nonperforming loans, which ranged between 1-3% during this period. This is, on average, 17 percentage-points lower than that of men. This showed that women and women-owned businesses are more prudent borrowers than men and men-owned businesses; 4. Few financial institutions, offered gender- focused products and services. These products and services were mostly tailored for individual women and women smallholder businesses; 5. Most financial institutions’ Information Management Systems are unable to provide sex2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  disaggregated data. Of the 64 institutions surveyed, only 25 institutions (mostly banks and microfinance institutions) had information management systems that can generate reports based on the sex of account holders, such as the number of women-owned and male-owned accounts, and the number of male and female borrowers; and 6. The number of digital wallets, or e-wallets, has been on the increase. It rose steadily in both number and value.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the main purpose of collecting sex-disaggregated data is to determine the levels of access, usage and quality of financial services; identify barriers to women financial inclusion; and assist with modifying the existing policies, strategies and regulatory measures that have been earmarked for increasing women’s financial inclusion in the medium to long term in Zambia. Collection of sex disaggregated data and the use of this data provides an opportunity for countries to develop policies that specifically target women’s financial inclusion and at the same time provides data and information for financial service providers to build the business case for developing products and services for women. Data will help us to know where we are, where we need to be and which areas to focus on. Thus the main objective of the project we embarked on last year is to establish a framework for collection of reliable, quality and comparable sex-disaggregated data that can facilitate the measurement of progress made toward closing the gender gap. Distinguished guests, let me highlight the key findings from the Survey, which will be the subject of detailed discussion in the course of this morning. The survey revealed among others that; 1. While the financial sector was among the sectors that employ a high percentage of women, they make up 45% of those employed in the sector, presenting a five percentage gender gap.