The African Development Bank (AfDB), has hinted of plans to mobilize $3 billion to support women entrepreneurs in Africa.
The President of the continental development finance institution, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, made this disclosure at the sidelines of the just concluded annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank in Washington D.C
He enthused: “We are supporting women. I think when Africa gets the issue of women right, it can get everything right and so there is the issue of financing that we provide through Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), that will help to mobilize $3 billion for businesses for women on the continent, he disclosed.
“The other one is that we actually supported another fund which is called the Alethia Identity Fund, which has just closed at $75 million and that is to support growth capital for the businesses for women. So in other words, the small, medium and the large businesses for women are what we are supporting.
“We raised $251 million from the G7 leaders when I was in Beria with President Macron.” ” So we are focused on how we can drive investments for women”, Adesina added.
According to him, the bank will be launching the women financing index for Africa in which all financial institutions in Africa will be rated based on their lending to women, both in terms of the volume of lending and the in terms of the lending and in terms of their development impact for women.
He pointed out that what this implied is that countries that lend more to women will get more resources at a more discounted rate from the bank so that they can lend more and have more impact.
Adesina said that he would like to see financial institutions in Africa being held fully accountable when it comes to financing women.
