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Nelson Gahadza
Senior Business Reporter
The Government says it is working on a guarantee for loans secured from the Women Bank in order to improve access to capital for women.
The Zimbabwe Women’s Microfinance Bank (ZWMB) is a deposit-taking microfinance institution in Zimbabwe that provides access to affordable and innovative women-centred financial products and services.
Finance, Economic Development, and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube, speaking at a Women Entrepreneur conference in Harare on Thursday, said the government has been supporting the bank through allocations from the budget but needs to do more.
“Evidence shows that women are good borrowers; they pay back on time and service their loans, so non-performing loans on woman entrepreneurs are quite low, and it means we should do more as a government.
“We have already had a Woman Bank, and every year we continue to allocate funds through the budget, but we want to do more,” he said.
The conference organised, which ran under the theme ‘Women for Prosperity: Empower Your Entrepreneurial Journey,” coincided with the launch of a report by the Atlantic Council, an American organisation, on how Zimbabwe can achieve its vision of prosperity, focussing on foreign direct investment and women’s economic freedom.
Minister Ncube said the bank is also working on a prescribed asset status so that they can partner with other investors, such as insurance companies and pension funds, who then support the capital base of the bank.
Online Reporter