Let’s mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on women businesses—BOG deputy Director

Mrs Clarrisa Kudowor, a Deputy Director, Bank of Ghana (BoG), has called on stakeholders within the business sector to join forces with the central bank to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on women-owned businesses.

The Bank believes in an inclusive and resilient financial system and economy because it works for all of us as a nation, and as stakeholders, we should make growth and shared agenda.

We need to share to help develop a more sustainable financial economy by encouraging women to bring their capacities to bear,” she stated.

Mr Kuwodor made this call at a National Policy Dialogue organised by the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) in partnership with Graca Machel Trust in Accra.

The event was on the theme, “Women’s Leadership for Financial inclusion and Economic Recovery.”

The dialogue assessed the challenges women faced in the Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) sector, which include difficulty in accessing loans and permits to set up businesses.

Other challenges are that the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down progress and reinforced pre-existing gender inequalities.

It also compounded structural and systemic barriers that made it difficult for women to easily access economic resources.

These were because a higher percentage of women were in the informal sector and MSMEs, as compared to men, she said, adding that many women businesses had still not ‘resurrected’ from the effect of Covid-19.

Mrs Kumawor observed that the Government’s Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Entreprises programme introduced to support MSMEs affected by the Covid-19 benefitted more men than women, as it was not gender specific and created gaps in accessing loans.

She advised women in business to leverage opportunities in the digital economy to grow their businesses.

Mrs Patricia Blankson Akakpo, the Programme Manager, NETRIGHT, said that the economic hardship hit by the pandemic were those where women were mostly found.

She said Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) prioritised gender equality and built inclusive economics.
For the continents to realise these goals, she noted, women needed to be among the decision-makers and collective action from local to national, regional to global level.

Ms Cyntia Sunu, Project Coordinator, NETRIGHT, said the three-year project was expected to support women’s leadership for digital financial inclusion in the various economic recovery strategies in Africa.

It aimed at targeting country-specific gender transformative financial inclusion and economic recovery framework to be adopted by governments and multisectoral stakeholders in targeted African countries.

She said the initiative would facilitate a greater representation of women in the COVID-19 economic recovery response task forces, increase political support strengthen women in financial inclusion leadership and improve the institutional capacity of GMT women’s networks in implementation countries.

According to Ms Sunu, the project would also help build and institutionalise a collective of African women leaders as expert women leaders and leading women’s networks to influence policy actions that promoted inclusive economic recovery in Africa through women’s financial inclusion.