The country program lead, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Mrs Juliette Lampoh-Agroh has called for more support from government and development partners to invest in women agriculture to reduce hardship in the county.
Lampoh-Agroh, who started in Abuja at the weekend during the International Women’s Day celebration in Abuja on the theme: “Invest in women: Accelerate Progress.”
She called on all stakeholders, government and development partners to join hands together and invest in women agriculture business so as to leverage the economic challenges in the county.
She noted, the International day has been set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the achievement of women in attaining gender equality and also a platform for advocacy to deal with the issues that are specific. Most importantly the challenges women face and their journey of gender equality in the society.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in collaboration with the USAID, Ukaid, ROCKEFELLE Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. The event was planned and coordinated by chocolate signature events.
” I said to the women out there that make the best investment you can to occupy your full potential, because we women occupy the great position in the agriculture sector. When it comes to leadership advising business plan, group processing it is we women. So let’s make the best investment to strip agriculture sectors.
“Today I’am opportunity to celebrate progress in advancing gender equality and highlighting persisting challenges and discussing real actions toward solutions.
Gathered to recognize the leading role of women actively advocating for economic empowerment of women Set the stage for driving advocacy agendas, conversations and targeted policies essential to ensure women in Africa agribusiness have equal opportunity to access finance and thrive investment potential.
“One of the key persisting challenges to achieving gender equality by 2030 is the alarming lack of financing to women Women run the majority of Africa’s agricultural sector small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs), yet they face significant barriers to accessing finance. Across the continent, African women entrepreneurs face an estimated $42 billion gender financing gap compared to men supply-side constraints such as high interest rates and collateral requirements play a major role in excluding women from the formal credit market.”
She added, and when they do have access, women typically face more stringent loan arrangements than men yet, demand-side factors and their influence on the gender gap in access to finance – low financial literacy, risk aversion, and fear of failure are just as equally important.
Also, the DG Gender Affairs Ministry of Women Affairs Mrs Friyi Kimde Bulus, said invest in women benefits and society as a whole and it has never been more urgent to advance women economic empowerment as mark by the 204 International Women Day: “Count Her In: Invest in women: Accurate Progress.
“She emphasises that connecting women with financial resources can help them meet their basic needs and start or grow business because women need additional financial resources, women need access to land, information technology and natural resources.”
