91ÑÇÉ«

Tubman Talks with Dr. Marie Laure Belomo Onguene: Peak Technology, Banking and Gender Economic Inclusion in Africa

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026
Time: 2:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Location: Zoom
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Title: Peak Technology, Banking and Gender Economic Inclusion in Africa

Abstract

The focus of the study is how mobile money moderates the effect of peak technology on gender economic inclusion in Africa, with thresholds of mobile money at which the effect
of peak technology on gender economic inclusion is mitigated, as well as evidence of positive synergies between digital finance and frontier technologies. Using a panel dataset of 31 African countries over the period 2010-2023, and drawing on fixed-effects models, Driscoll–Kraay robust estimations, Lewbel (2012) instrumental variable approaches, and quantile regressions, the study produces the following key findings. First, the baseline linear estimates indicate that frontier technology readiness (FRTI) is, on average, positively and significantly associated with the share of women in the labor force. Second, interactive and instrumental variable specifications reveal a fundamental structural heterogeneity: when mobile money and digital payment services are absent, the marginal effect of FRTI on women’s economic inclusion turns negative or insignificant. Third, threshold analysis identifies specific levels of financial digitalization beyond which the adverse effect of frontier technologies is fully mitigated or reversed into a positive synergy. These thresholds vary across specifications (ranging from approximately 0.53 to 1.65 on the digital finance scales) but consistently confirm a non-linear complementarity between technological capability and digital financial inclusion. Fourth, quantile regression results establish that the inclusive effect of technology is most pronounced at the upper end of the distribution of female labor force participation. Policy implications are discussed.

Bio

Marie Laure BELOMO ONGUENE is a lecturer in the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Yaoundé 2 Soa. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Dschang in Cameroon and served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Open AIR program at the Center for Law, Technology, and Society at the University of Ottawa. In addition, she serves as a visiting researcher in the Department of Economics at 91ÑÇÉ« in Canada under the supervision of Pralewa Yinka Olawoye. Between May 2023 and August 2023, she received a research mobility grant from the Observatory of the Economic Francophonie at the University of Lomé in Togo. Her research focuses on the socioeconomic challenges that emigration poses to migrants’ countries of origin. She is particularly interested in economic complexity, women’s political empowerment, and food security.