The deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs. Aishah Ahmad, has said she is keen on fostering women’s financial inclusion and empowerment by tackling the most crucial COVID-19-induced economic challenges being faced by women and ensuring equitably benefit from economic stimulus to combat the negative effects of the pandemic.
The deputy governor made this statement while delivering a keynote address at a recent national roundtable themed: Women’s Financial Inclusion and Economic Recovery, Post COVID-19, hosted by the New Faces, New Voices (NFNV-Nigeria), a pan-African women in finance network under the Graça Machel Trust (GMT).
She said: “We are advocating for women’s representation in Covid-19 relief interventions and in accelerating financial inclusion for female-owned businesses. We see digital financial services as an anchor and a route to achieving that objective. We are also advocating for financing women-owned businesses from the available Covid-19 relief interventions, as we will also seek to broadly promote women’s MSMEs access to finance, ’’ she assured.
Mrs. Ahmad was speaking in her capacity as a member of the Expert Leaders Group (ELG) of African female deputy central bank governors established by GMT to ensure women were empowered to contribute to an essential shift in the business and financial landscape across the African continent.
Mrs. Ahmad said in a bid to drive inclusive economic growth, CBN had deployed several SME-targeted interventions during the pandemic, including the $50 billion targeted credit facility disbursed to over 700,000 beneficiaries, 45% of which had been disbursed to women as at January 2022. In addition, she said women constitute 33% of the beneficiaries of the Agri-Business/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS), just as 60.3% of beneficiaries of the CBN’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) were women.
“We recently launched the Framework for Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria aimed at closing the gender gap in financial inclusion which is 8% in Nigeria and 9% globally. This is a platform for dialogue to develop strategies and initiatives for policymakers to implement,’’ the CBN deputy governor said.
