African Development Bank (AFDB) has announced that over $40 billion funding gap still exists among Africa women in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) in Africa.
Ebrimal Faal, senior country director, AFDB, said this in Abuja on Wednesday, stating that ensuring capacity building among Africa women had remained a cross-cutting issue for the bank, as over $40 billion gap had been identified in women small medium enterprise in Africa.
Faal, speaking at the conference on strengthening women’s involvement in Public Private Partnership (PPP), said the bank had developed the Affirmative Finance for Africa Women (AFAW), which seeks to raise $5 billion for Africa women in SMES.
“The fiscal space available to the government to fill the identified gap is small, hence the private sector need to be involved in addressing the gap in the continent. At the moment women comprise over 40 percent players of the small and medium enterprises.
“We have developed the Africa development bank gender market system to set target for gender mainstreaming to track gender report,” Faal said.
According to Faal, it is important to highlight the barriers that hinder women capacity and limit the opportunities of female entrepreneurs in PPP arrangements.
Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s first lady in her remark, said the integration of gender perspectives in infrastructure development, design and implementation would address the gaps in infrastructure delivery as they affect women, and would have profound impact on the socio-economic growth and transformation of the nation and enhance the living conditions of women.
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“It is initiatives like these that confirm the vibrancy of the regulatory agency and its effort in institutionalising partnership between the public-private sectors towards accelerated growth and development of our country.
“While change must reflect the various indices of economic progress, it is imperative that it must deliver significant improvement in the living conditions of all Nigerians, especially women. It is, therefore, my sincere hope that this strategic conference will assist with a clear road map that will recognize the critical importance of gender considerations in the design, development, and implementation of PPPS and infrastructure in Nigeria,” she said.
