TheCable

The African Development Bank (AfDB) says credit lines will be made available to financial institutions that make loans available to women.

Akinwumi Adesina, the AfDB president, made this known to journalists, TheCable inclusive, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC.

“The bank will be launching what we called the women financing index for Africa in which all financial institutions in Africa will be rated based on their lending to women,” Adesina said.

The ratings, he said, will be “both in terms of the volume of lending and the in terms of the lending that they give and in terms of the development impact of their lending for women.

“So those who lend more to women will get more resources from us and those who are lending more can get more resources at a discounted rate from the bank, so you can lend more and have more impact for women.

“I will like to see financial institutions in Africa being held fully accountable when it comes to financing women. The reason for that is very simple for me. Women run African economies and I think we need to support them and help them get the financing that they need.”

Adesina, who a former minister of agriculture in Nigeria, said Africa will thrive when women are empowered.

“We provide funding through Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) that will help to mobilize funding for women in Africa.

“The other one is that we actually supported another fund which is called Alethia Identity Fund which had just closed at $75 million and that is to support growth capital for the businesses of women. So I other words the small medium and large businesses for women are what we are supporting.”