AFDB, to launch affirmative frinance action for African women

The African Development Bank, AFDB, says it is planning to launch an initiative-the “Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa, AFAWA” which targets to empower women both in Nigeria and others on the continent.

The Country Director AFDB, Ebrima Faal, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, at the 2017 International Women’s Day Celebration with the theme ‘Women in the ‘Changing World of Work: Planet 50:50 By 2030’.

“The bank recognizes the crucial role of women in economic growth and sustainability in Africa as demonstrated in her gender strategy and 10 year strategy, 2013-02022, which places high emphasis on gender equality and mainstreaming as a prerequisite for Africa’s Economic Transformation.

“The bank will soon be launching an initiative, Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa, AFAWA, which will be a great boost to women in a changing world of work by empowering them in business through capacity development, enabling environment creation, training, mentoring, information and knowledge sharing.

Represented by Baba Umoru, the Country Director lamented that African women have over time been denied opportunities to engage in highly paid jobs and high positions of public trust.

She added that most of the jobs women do are not recognized as jobs in Africa due to their informal nature and lack of financial benefit.

“Women constitute about 50% of Nigeria population and since they are main drivers of our economic prosperity, all effort must be made to harness and maximize their input to the economy, which is achievable through education, opening up of opportunities, advocacy and policy reform Initiatives in support of the elimination of all forms of gender disparities in issues of work.

Meanwhile, OXFAM Nigeria is urging the Federal Government to address multiple taxation facing women in the formal sector and upscale agricultural investments in the agriculture sector.

The Country Director, Jan Rogge, stressed that up scaling of agricultural investment is important to boost the socioeconomic activities and financial capacities of the over 70% of women who engage in agricultural activities in the country.

“Over 70% of women work in the informal sector but they lack access to finance in agriculture. We are calling on the government to pay more attention to the agriculture sector where over 70% are engaged.

‎The Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, in her address called on the federal government ‎to formulate and implement gender responsive policies to give women full inclusion in all developmental strategies for the promotion of the  economy.

She said the move would put a stop to all sorts of gender ‎disparity against women.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Phylis Nwokedi, the Minister noted that the problem was not peculiar to Nigeria, noting that the the world was still gender bias despite global and national efforts to remedy the situation.

She laments that the realities of work environment was far from being gender friendly as research has continued to show that many women in the formal sector earn consistently less than their male counterpart regardless of their educational qualification , and even  in some cases they earn less than men with lower qualification.

“Globally today, the gender parity stands at an alarming ‎24% and as such women are still very much discriminated against as a result of their gender and not expertise.

“As a strategy to mitigate against this status quo, gender responsive policies must be formulated and implemented to the latter to ensure women’s full inclusion in all developmental strategies by both the government and the private sector of the national economy.‎

‎”The rights ‎of women must also be adhered to as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution as amended, Beijing platform for action and other international treaties and conventions as Nigeria is a signatory to,” she said.