Gender disparities in financial access and resilience among households in Nigeria amidst COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose Financial inclusion is fundamental in facilitating economic growth and development. Therefore, attaining a financially inclusive economy is not the end, but what it can achieve and, in this case, financial resilience. It is no longer about accessible funds, but the appropriateness of the funds in surviving shocks and unforeseen circumstances. With the disparity in financial inclusion between male and female, it is important to examine if there are differences in how financial inclusion affect the resilience of households. Design/methodology/approach The Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) to Financial Services in Nigeria (2020) Survey conducted in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic was used for the study. The study employs the logistic regression and to control for possible issues of endogeneity, the instrumental variable two-stage least square (IV-2SLS) regression was applied. Findings The findings revealed that there was no difference in the effect of financial inclusion on the resilience of men and women. This has a significant implication for policy in gender equality. Also, the interactive effect between financial access and financially resilience was found to be positive and significant. Originality/value The study provides a gender-based analysis of financial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic using Nigeria's EFInA 2020 dataset. It uniquely introduces emergency fund availability and ability to plan ahead as resilience indicators, applying Logit and IV-2SLS methods to uncover gender-specific financial inclusion and resilience dynamics.