Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]
MINISTER of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Senator Monica Mutsvangwa has said the Government is utilising public-private partnerships (PPPs) to fund initiatives which are meant to empower women and promote SME growth.
The Minister said this during the open day market which was held in Bulawayo on Friday.
The event which was organised by the Organisation for Women in International Trade (OWIT) in partnership with the ministry and Ecobank has seen more than 200 SME exhibiting their products from different sectors.
Sen Mutsvangwa said this tripartite relationship will promote women’s empowerment with the Pan African Bank Ecobank Ellevate initiative which is meant to promote women’s businesses.
In 2022, Ecobank launched a new product called Ellevate aimed at facilitating financial support for women-led entrepreneurship.
Sen Mutsvangwa said Ellevate is a good development because the bank realised the barriers which were hindering women from being able to advance their businesses.
“Today we are very excited about this tripartite partnership which is between the ministry, OWIT and Ecobank.
“So, we are saying we want to promote the three PPPs because we can’t really lift women on our own, we work with everybody to make sure that our women are empowered,” said Sen Mutsvangwa.
“This special programme, Ellevate, which Ecobank came up with is a very good one. They came up with a programme which will make all women open an account with Ecobank where they don’t have to pay monthly fees, you know a lot of people when you open an account in these commercial banks the next month you see most of the money will have been taken by fees.”
Minister Mutsvangwa said Bulawayo women are doing wonderful things and transforming the lives of the families.
She said women are at the backbone of the economy where women occupy more than 50 percent of the population.
“The President is on record saying we need to move with everybody, we don’t want to leave anybody or any place behind so we are here in Bulawayo to just show women in Bulawayo that we are with you,” she said.
“Our mandate is to help you, find a private sector which can work with you and we also have our programmes as the ministry as the Government realises the important role which women entrepreneurs have been doing.
“We do have certain funds to just jumpstart our women but this programme has made our women very confident.”
In his speech, Ecobank board member Mr Promise Ncube said SMEs account for up to 90 percent of all businesses in Africa and one in four of the adult female population in Africa starts or manages a business making the continent one of the highest in terms of women entrepreneurs across the world.
He said in Zimbabwe women constitute 51,9 percent of the population and women in Zimbabwe own about 53 percent of all registered SMEs.
“Despite these strong attributes, women continue to face a myriad of challenges in accessing finance needed to improve and expand their businesses.
“Their inability to sometimes provide strong or bankable business plans means financial institutions are not able to fully appreciate their business and why they require financing,” he said.
“They are seen as high risk because they cannot provide collateral and guarantees. A good number of women entrepreneurs are not able to articulate their dreams and what they need to achieve these dreams. All this has meant that they have limited access to finance.”
He said the financing gap for women in Africa is estimated at US$42 billion, with US$15,6 billion in agriculture alone.
In addition, he said some legal and regulatory frameworks hinder the full participation of women in business.
“Instances where they require authorisation from husbands or fathers to work or some bank requirements that expect husbands to co-sign loans all affect entrepreneurship and their ability to grow their businesses,” he said.
“Whichever way we look at it, the economic development and financial integration of the continent will be far from successful if we ignore women.
“We all need to rise to the challenge and actualise this potential in the woman business entrepreneur, thus Ecobank has come up with an end-to-end solution to address this being the Ellevate by Ecobank.”
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