June 26, 2022 6:31 PM
Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, director-general, West Africa regional development and business delivery office of the bank, said this in a telephone interview with NAN on Sunday. She said the bank, in partnership with its partners, had rolled out the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa to bridge the finance gap.“AFAWA is a pan-African initiative, which we have gotten partners to join the initiative, and the objective is to bridge the $42 million financing gap,” she said.
“We really believe that with some of these activities, working with the government to support legal, policy, and regulatory reforms will really help to reduce barriers to women in finance.Akin-Olugbade added that the bank had approved close to half a billion dollars of lending to 2,000 women entrepreneurs.