A Key to Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Development
Women are breaking boundaries in business today more than before. However, there is still the need to include more women in key decision-making positions in the financial sector. In a country witnessing rapid population growth estimated at 2.8 percent by the World Bank, it is worth x-raying the economic value of empowering women and promoting an inclusive economic agenda especially in the financial sector that will position women as co-contributors to the economic stability of the nation.
The agitation for an agenda to create a more economic and globally inclusive environment for women started a decade ago with the Beijing conference in 1995. Since then, there has been an upsurge of women propaganda and activist groups canvassing for more economic opportunities and key decision making positions for women. This has resulted in the emergence of women as key drivers on the political scene, as can be seen in Liberia and Rwanda. Women have also become active in entrepreneurship, financial and even the religious sectors as recently witnessed in Great Britain with the ordination of Rev. Libby Lane as the Church of England’s first female bishop on the 25th of Jan 2015.
With the rapidly increasing rate of single parenthood and divorces world over, women’s role in the home as co-creators of life have also gained the additional burden of becoming sole financial providers. This duality of roles has strengthened and emboldened women to take greater risks in careers, business and politics and has also created the need for countries to provide a viable economic environment for businesses especially those owned by women, to thrive.
A research conducted by U.S. Trust, highlights that women-owned businesses in the formal sector represent approximately 37% of enterprises around the world. This research was conducted across four countries– the United States, China, Mexico and France. However, like every new phenomenon, the rapid rise of more female executives and female owned businesses in the 21st century has also introduced its brand of problems especially within a core male dominated environment such as the Financial Sector.
Looking at the financial sector, true to its traditional nature of being stubbornly male at its core, there is a huge gap in the percentage of key positions held by men and women; from the Wall Street to the Silicon Valley and to the entirety of the financial sector world. It can be argued that there are women who currently occupy senior level executive positions in the financial sector in Nigeria and in some parts of the world. The fact however remains that they are still in the minority and cannot be equated with the number of men in similar positions. Admitted that women are also beginning to get a foothold in the business scene as entrepreneurs, the need for sustainable growth still remains. This is especially so in the area of funding. With easier access to funding, a stronger platform of support and growth will help more startups by women to thrive.
Both internationally and in Nigeria, there is a growing trend to make funding more accessible to female entrepreneurs. One of such programs is the N220b MSME funding opportunity recently launched by the CBN as a platform to strengthen the bridge between entrepreneurship and access to funding. As a female entrepreneur, I must applaud this venture. It is rare for financial institutions; especially those in Africa, to give a one-digit interest rate funding or to apply serious thought backed by achievable action to womens peculiar business growth needs. Therefore, this is indeed a positive step by the CBN to achieve its goal of economically empowering Nigerian women by making funds more accessible. However, what is not quite clear is if the existing lending structure, which requires collateral will still hold sway or will the commercial banks allow the use of moveable or dead assets to enable women access this fund since 60% of it has been allocated to women. I spoke to an access bank representative who said that collateral is required to access this loan. I also spoke with a Diamond bank representative who also confirmed what the Access bank representative said. This continues to be the major problem impeding growth for businesses that are owned by women, most of whom do not own any assets worth using as collateral.
The general postulation on a possible solution in providing an equitable platform for equality where women can source for and receive the needed funding to start and grow their businesses is to encourage more female participation as top executives of banks and as venture capitalists. This school of thought believes that appointing more professional women into the leadership of the traditionally entrenched and male dominated financial sector will give women a fair opportunity to source for and receive funding.
This view was also echoed by the Rwandan First Lady, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame during her speech at a meeting to discuss the economic empowerment of women, organized on the sidelines of the COMESA Heads of State and Government Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and hosted by the Ethiopian First Lady Roman Tesfaye. According to the News of Rwanda, “The First Lady, Mrs. Kagame said that financial inclusion should be on the global agenda to enable women access tools for financial success, which is a critical step to overall empowerment. She further explained that the financial sectors in many countries are still hostile for women, a fact that has negative effects on the advancement of women to private sector leadership and unpleasant implications for female entrepreneurs’ access to capital.”
It is for this same reason that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the unveiling of Japan’s economic empowerment agenda tagged “national growth strategy”. The core of this strategy is centered on empowering the workingwoman and boosting female employment as Japan’s only hope of avoiding economic catastrophe. To support work-life balance and also ensure the successful transition of Japanese mothers into the work environment, the government plans to open 250,000 daycare centers over the next few years.
Another consideration birthed by the peculiar challenges faced by women in accessing financial services in Nigeria and Africa is the Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework in Section 4.2 (iv). This policy provides that women’s access to financial services should increase by 15 per cent annually in order to eliminate gender disparity. To put this into effect, 60 per cent (N132.00 billion) of the CBN Fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women. Though commercial institutions will administer this fund, it is worthy of note that for the first time in Africa, women now have a microfinance bank that is solely dedicated to the needs of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This is the Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) initiated by the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association. It is hoped that through this corporative movement, access to funding will be marginally increased for female business owners. An economy that captures the success factors in its economic growth agenda will eventually boast of a steady viably growing economy.
It is fairly obvious that women are at the heart of this global agenda. It is my hope that as the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, which empowered many women through appointments and successfully launched programs winds down, the in-coming dispensation led by the President – Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari will herald a more economically empowered agenda for both career and entrepreneurial women to thrive.
MUNA ONUZO