AfDB Bridges $42bn Financing Gap Hindering African Women Enterprises  

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is seeking to bridge the $42 billion financing gap that currently hinders women-owned and women-led enterprises across the African continent, the director general of the Nigerian Country Department of the bank, Dr Abdul Kamara, has said.

Kamara said this at a High-Level Dialogue on Investment in Gender Equality and Ending Violence Against Women for Rights and Development, which was organised by UN Women in partnership with AfDB in Abuja on Tuesday.

The event is part of the global “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” campaign, which runs from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10th (Human Rights Day) to address the pressing issue of gender-based violence in Nigeria, where women and girls continue to face various forms of discrimination and violence.

The Nigerian AfDB Country DG said the bank has a very clear stance on Gender-Based Violence (GBV). In 2024, AfDB celebrated 25 years of gender mainstreaming in all its operations geared towards evidence-based reduction in gender gaps and, more importantly, acceleration of gender equality.

“One area where the bank has made a very visible impact in economic empowerment in the last seven years is increasing access to finance through a special initiative called AFAWA, which is an acronym for Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa.

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“In the context of this Pan African Initiative, the African Development Bank seeks to bridge the financing gap of $42 billion currently hindering women-owned and women-led enterprises across the continent, and I am glad to report that we disbursed over a billion dollars of this across Africa, seeking to increase access to finance for women.

“This is just one among many initiatives of the bank that are responding directly to the problem of gender equality. In Nigeria, all our programmes and projects are gender mapped and have gender experts working with the government to design actions that will bridge gender gaps, looking to access to financing for women, access to market, access skills, and most importantly, access to jobs and incomes.

“Just last month, we approved here in the bank $100 million in the programme called Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank for Nigeria. This is a non-deposit bank; it is an access to finance. This operation will improve gender responsiveness, youth entrepreneurship, and enterprise development by boosting financial services to foster a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and affirmative action for jobs focusing on women,” he said.

In his remarks, the minister of budget and national planning, Sen. Atiku Bagudu, said GBV was a growing concern that required immediate attention and collective action, noting that despite progress made toward dealing with violence, women and girls continue to face violence, discrimination and marginalisation.

Represented by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Dr Vitalis Obi, the minister said empowering women was crucial to breaking this cycle of violence, and that can be done by creating and promoting gender-responsive policies and practices.

“We must take decisive action to prevent and protect our women from all forms of violence and to create a society where everyone feels safe irrespective of their gender. One of the ways by which we can bridge this persistent gap is by institutionalising gender-responsive budgeting in all sectors of the economy.

“Gender responsive budgeting is the strategic approach that integrates gender perspectives into the budget cycle. Allocate adequate resources to the programmes that will address GBV, women empowerment and education,” he said.

For her part, the chairperson of the Nigerian Governors’ Spouses Forum, Prof. Olufolake Abdulrazaq, said they remained steadfast in advocating gender-responsive budgeting across the 36 states of the federation and FCT, spending institutional frameworks that integrated gender perspectives, and championing initiatives to protect women’s rights.

The Kwara State first lady said the forum was firmly committed to ensuring that all gender laws become a cornerstone of governance at the subnational levels. She added that the well-being of women and girls remained a pivotal indicator of how well any nation was faring in driving its developmental plan.

“It is time to address the structural barriers that perpetuate inequality for women and girls to reach their full potential. This is my belief and not only an act of justice but a strategic investment in resilience and productivity of our nation as this no doubt stands as a veritable gift to commemorate the 2024 16 days of activism against GBV.

“The Nigerian Governors Spouses Forum really made an effort in the last couple of years…We are also working to get women into leadership because we believe that when women are in leadership positions, they will help us to sustain this drive of bringing developments to women,” she added.

In her opening remarks, Beatrice Eyong, the UN Women’s country representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said GBV was not just a human rights issue but also an economic issue. Statistics showed that the menace was costing the Nigerian government 1.5% of its Gross Domestic Product.

“We are talking of billions of dollars that the country is losing every year because of Gender-Based Violence.  So Gender-Based Violence is linked to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. So, if we do nothing, we will not get out of poverty, and we will not achieve sustainable development.

“The World Economic Forum estimated in its global gender gaps report of 2022 that it will take about 132 years for the world to achieve gender equality. What does this mean for Nigeria? In this space, some of us, including our daughters, might not have experienced gender equality in our time.

“This is, therefore, a call to collective actions by all international organisations, government agencies, community stakeholders and even the private sector to address the under-representation of women and barriers to gender equality,” she noted.