Mrs. Clarrisa Kudowor, a Deputy Director at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has urged business sector participants to work with the central bank to lessen the effects of COVID-19 on women-owned firms.

The Bank supports an inclusive and robust financial system and economy since it benefits the entire country and encourages shared growth among all stakeholders.

We must collaborate to create a more sustainable financial sector by empowering women to use their skills, she said.

Mr Kuwodor made this call at a National Policy Dialogue organised by the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT) in partnership with Graca Machel Trust in Accra.

The event was on the theme, “Women’s Leadership for Financial inclusion and Economic Recovery.”

The dialogue assessed the challenges women faced in the Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) sector, which include difficulty in accessing loans and permits to set up businesses.

Other challenges are that the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down progress and reinforced pre-existing gender inequalities.

It also compounded structural and systemic barriers that made it difficult for women to easily access economic resources.

These were because a higher percentage of women were in the informal sector and MSMEs, as compared to men, she said, adding that many women businesses had still not ‘resurrected’ from the effect of Covid-19.

Mrs Kumawor observed that the Government’s Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Entreprises programme introduced to support MSMEs affected by the Covid-19 benefitted more men than women, as it was not gender specific and created gaps in accessing loans.

She advised women in business to leverage opportunities in the digital economy to grow their businesses.

Mrs Patricia Blankson Akakpo, the Programme Manager,  NETRIGHT, said that the economic hardship hit by the pandemic were those where women were mostly found.

She said Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) prioritised gender equality and built inclusive economics.

For the continents to realise these goals, she noted, women needed to be among the decision-makers and collective action from local to national, regional to global level.

Ms Cyntia Sunu, Project Coordinator, NETRIGHT, said the three-year project was expected to support women’s leadership for digital financial inclusion in the various economic recovery strategies in Africa.

It was designed to target the adoption by governments and multi-sectoral stakeholders in targeted African nations of a gender transformative financial inclusion and economic recovery framework.

In addition to increasing political support, strengthening women's leadership in financial inclusion, and enhancing the institutional capacity of GMT women's networks in implementation countries, she claimed that the initiative would enable a greater representation of women in the COVID-19 economic recovery response task forces.

According to Ms. Sunu, the project would also aid in the development and institutionalization of a group of African women leaders who would act as expert women leaders and network leaders, influencing policy decisions that supported women's financial inclusion as a means of promoting inclusive economic recovery in Africa.