n style=”color: #ff6600;”>Africa-Press – Ethiopia. March 19/2021 /ENA/ The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced that it will invest 5 billion USD to economically empower African women in businesses over the next five years.
African Development Bank Deputy Director-General for East Africa Region, Abdul B. Kamara told ENA that the bank seeks to crowd in a financing of 5 billion USD for women.
According to him, the five-year gender strategy approved in December, 2020 includes empowering women through access to finance and markets as its pillar.
The pillar focuses on enhancing access to finance and technical assistance to women entrepreneurs in business model development, financial and business planning, and transform them into productive and competitive enterprises.
“The Bank has a five-year (2021-2025) Gender Strategy, specifically devoted to women, and the pillar is also benefiting from an existing initiative that we call Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA),” the deputy director-general said.
Affirmative Action for Women in Africa, led by the Bank, is critical to achieving that pillar as it seeks to unlock 5 billion USD over five years to support women’s businesses, he elaborated.
“AFAWA is operational in many African countries and creating opportunities for women in businesses,” Kamara said, adding that “it trains women, facilitates their access to capital, and also provides access to economic and business opportunities.”
The objective of the AFAWA, which has seed money from the African Development Bank, and key donors, especially bilateral donors, seeks to crowd in a financing of 5 billion USD for women over the next five years.
“This means African Development Bank will invest seed money that will create opportunity for others to come in and add on to that money through co-financing arrangements, but also through economic opportunity that generate [money], for example, technical assistance that will create opportunities for bigger programs to scale up to the tune of 5 billion USD,” he added.
The five-year Gender Strategy seeks to strengthen the Bank’s commitment as a leader on the continent, to reach gender equality and women and girls empowerment in Africa to ensure that the bank fulfills its commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment across the full range of its operations and initiatives.
