Women’s bank set to open
ALL is set for the official opening of the women’s micro-finance bank that will provide financial support to small and medium enterprises, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Nyasha Chikwinya said all the sticking issues that had been delaying the processes had since been resolved.
“I can safely say all is set for the opening, we await the official opening of the micro-finance bank by our principal, His Excellency President Robert Mugabe,” she said.
“The information and communication technology issues are still in process, as you know every bank depends on ICTs. We are, however, working flat out to ensure that we are within schedule. The board has already been appointed and all the workers are on the ground, ready to start.”
The opening of the bank had initially been slated for next month.
Minister Chikwinya said the bank was one of the measures put in by Government to empower women by ensuring that they accessed money at concessionary rates.
“This is one of the many endeavours by Government to empower women and with the help of the Almighty we will make it,” she said.
“We want to be like other countries that have various programmes earmarked for the empowerment of women.
“We want Zimbabweans to support the bank and we also want investors to chip in and support the financial aspirations of our women who constitute more than 50 percent of this country’s population.”
Minister Chikwinya said it was heartening that a number of stakeholders had come aboard to assist in the formation and the progression of the project.
“When we started, quite a number of people and institutions came to us in support of the idea and intentions,” she said.
“They have been able to walk us through the processes, and even share with us the temporary setbacks that we encountered during the course of the way.
“From what we have managed to cover, we are good to go.”
Once set up, the micro-finance bank is expected to avail cash to the informal sector at reasonable interest, with less stringent requirements to women, who usually fail to access money from conventional banks due to lack of collateral.
It is estimated that of the 5,4 million people that are in the informal sector, about 60 percent of them are women engaged in vending and various entrepreneurial projects.