Abstract

Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) has emerged as a strategic catalyst for economic resilience and gendered empowerment, yet women in Uganda’s marginalized and refugee-hosting communities continue to face entrenched digital and financial exclusion. This study empirically interrogates how Technological Self-Efficacy (TSE) conditions the relationship between Fintech usage and DFI, offering a behavioural-finance–driven extension to digital inclusion theory. Using survey data from 384 women entrepreneurs across three major refugee settlements, the study deploys hierarchical regression and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro to capture both direct and interactive effects. Results demonstrate that Fintech usage significantly enhances DFI, while TSE independently exerts a strong positive influence. Crucially, the interaction term confirms that TSE amplifies the marginal returns of Fintech engagement, revealing that confidence in navigating digital interfaces materially determines the depth and quality of financial inclusion outcomes. These insights highlight that access alone is insufficient—digital capability acts as the behavioural infrastructure upon which inclusive fintech ecosystems can scale. The study contributes a novel empirical model for understanding gendered Fintech adoption in constrained environments and provides evidence-based guidance for policymakers, regulators and digital finance providers seeking to build equitable, capability-centred financial systems. Findings position Uganda as an important analytical frontier for global DFI scholarship and emerging-market financial innovation.

Keywords: Digital financial inclusion, Fintech adoption, Technological self-efficacy, Women empowerment, Financial technology, Marginalized communities, Uganda, Behavioural finance, Financial inclusion policy, Inclusive innovation