Okonjo calls for specialised bank for women

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister
for Finance , Dr Ngozi OKonjo-Iweala has called for
the creation of a bank that will cater exclusively for
the financing need of women. She made this call in
a keynote address at the 2nd African Women
Economic Summit in Lagos last week.
Meanwhile, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will
launch a special fund for micro, small and medium
(MSME) enterprises in October. CBN Governor,
Mallam Lamido Sanusi disclosed this saying fund
will replace the old agricultural credit guarantee
scheme and 60 per cent of it will be dedicated for
women entrepreneurs.
Reiterating the apex bank's support for women in
businesses, he said, "I am not one of those that
believe that all men are better than women or that
women are better than men. You need to both to
have diversity on the board. Any board that has a
combination of men and women is better than any
one that has men only or women only.
The central bank has proposed to set up a micro
small and medium enterprises (SME) fund which
60 per cent will be for women empowerment. This
fund is expected to replace the old agricultural
credit guarantee scheme that we have had. When
this fund is launched, at least 60 per cent of the
loan will go to women business owners at single-
digit interest rate.
Hopefully, by October this year, when we all come
back from the World Bank meetings, it will be
inaugurated." In her address, Okonjo-Iweala said it
is no longer a debate on whether there should be
any investment on women, since such investment
is the only way to sustain current growth across
Africa.
She said even though Africa has produced two
women Presidents in Liberia and Malawi, women's
participation in politics and governance is still too
low, giving their strategic role and number.
"Women are the third largest emerging markets in
the globe. (They are) the third largest sources of
growth. One of the fastest ways to sustain current
growth is to invest in women, at least this will grow
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)," she said.
She said while the global economies were
experiencing greater uncertainties as manifested in
the economic crisis in Europe, United States and
other emerging markets like China, Brazil and
India, African economy is growing at 5%.
As a way out of the financial exclusion being
experienced by women, she advocated for a
specialised bank that will cater for the financial
interest of women alone. "Let's us be creative, let's
join hands together in other to solve women's
problems in financing. …Lets come together,
because we are used to solving and coming
together to empower ourselves," Okonjo-Iweala
said.
Also speaking at the summit, Vice-President,
African Development Bank (AfDB), Cecilia
Akintomide, who represented AfDB President
Donald Kaberuka, said that participants at the
summit should focus on solving other problems
confronting women, including education, access to
health and capacity building, saying without
addressing these issues, women would continue to
be relegated to the background.
"More than half of women who died during birth
are from Africa. African women hold only 26% of
small size businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, and on
the global front only 15%, which is very low.
'We are not going to participate fully in growing the
economy without access to financing. Inclusion is
very important. Unless we do the right thing, we
may not be able to move forward as we want. Each
one of us here has a responsibility to promote
women empowerment," she said.