With enough access to finance women can transform Africa
Marrakech, Morocco (PANA) - Access to finance by women in Africa is critical if the continent is to attain the sustainable development goals, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Deputy Executive Secretary, Giovanie Biha, said on Tuesday at the launch of the African Women Leadership Fund (AWLF) in Marrakech, Morocco.
Adoption of the right actions to integrate gender in Africa’s economies will result in financial inclusion, guarantee women’s economic empowerment and achievement of the SDGs, thereby helping change the face of the continent, Ms. Biha said.
Citing a 2013 ECA Report, she said failure to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into national economies cost African countries US$95 billion in lost productivity annually.
“This is an indicator that financial exclusion of women is not an option for our continent,” said Ms. Biha, adding that the African Women Leadership Fund is an impact fund that aims to strengthen economic empowerment of women and accelerate the emergence of African women fund managers, who in turn will invest in and develop African women-led businesses and micro-businesses.
Over the next decade the fund is envisaged to have made an investment of up to $500 million in African owned and women-led companies. The fund is anchored on six pillars;
- Providing African women entrepreneurs access to sustainable capital
- Providing African cooperatives access to sustainable capital
- Lowering barriers to entry for capable women asset managers focused on investing in women-owned and women-led companies
- Providing technical assistance to accelerate the fund management learning curve and supporting growth and expansion
- Providing seed capital to develop a track record and accelerate fundraising and scale
- Focus on sustainability and scalability of the platform
The ECA is supporting the operationalisation of the innovative fund, a brainchild of the UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed, African Union Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat and the African Women’s Leadership Network (AWLN).
Speaking on the occasion, Djibouti’s Women and Family Affairs minister, Moumina Houmed, said the story of women and finance was similar to that of every other African country.
She shared efforts being undertaken by her country, including capacity building of associations and cooperatives; partnerships with the private sector to train women entrepreneurs and getting banks to give women more access to finance.
“We know that even in family-owned businesses women have a much lower share. We have very few women entrepreneurs on the continent because of the hurdle of access to finance. As such, the fund seeks to lower these hurdles faced by women-owned businesses, promote investments in micro enterprises and take women’s cooperatives to the next level,” said Nabila Freidji, a Moroccan entrepreneur and member of the AWLF committee.
ECA’s Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division Director, Thokozile Ruzvidzo, stressed the necessity for women’s financial inclusion in African economies.
She said funds will be earmarked for each of the five regions of North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa with a strategy being established for each region to address unique elements of the markets and to reflect priorities for each region.
“Priority would be given to women-led businesses. At least 65 percent of capital will be invested in women-led companies,” she said.
For her part, Leila Rhiwi, a representative of UN Women in Morocco, emphasised the importance of women accessing finance to bolster their businesses as “they have already proven themselves as entrepreneurs and drivers of the economies.”
The meeting, which discussed the AWLF ahead of the fifth Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD), was attended by representatives of the Moroccan business and financial ecosystem, government officials, senior women executives and young women entrepreneurs.
-0- PANA AR 17Apr2019
