Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has announced that the government’s proposed Women’s Development Bank will soon be inaugurated as part of efforts to promote inclusive economic growth and improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs across the country.
Speaking during a visit to the Ministry of Finance, the Vice President said significant progress had been made towards establishing the specialised financial institution, which is expected to play a key role in supporting women-owned businesses and empowering economically disadvantaged groups.
“We’ve all worked very, very hard to ensure that we’ve established this bank, that we are going to inaugurate it not too long in the future,” she stated.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang explained that the Women’s Development Bank forms part of government’s broader commitment to ensuring that economic growth benefits all segments of society, particularly women who often face challenges accessing credit through traditional banking institutions.
According to her, the bank will focus largely on supporting women operating at the lower end of the economic spectrum, many of whom run small businesses but struggle to obtain loans due to the inability to meet collateral and other lending requirements imposed by conventional banks.
“It will include the people on the margins, most of whom happen to be women at the bottom of the pyramid, and who sometimes don’t have the means to go to the established banks with their collateral and all these requirements, but who also need support anyway in building their small businesses, in taking care of their families, and in taking care of themselves,” she said.
The Vice President further disclosed that government has already committed GHS450 million towards the establishment of the bank and expressed confidence that additional resources would be mobilised as the project progresses.
“We are very, very happy that we’ve come this far, even with our GHS450 million. We know that more is coming,” she added.
