Female legislators in the Zimbabwe National Assembly have recently urged the government to expedite the operation of the Women’s Bank to provide the much needed funding for their businesses.
Debating the proposed 2016 National Budget, Goromonzi West legislator who also chairs the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Beater Nyamupinga, said capitalisation of the bank should not be a burden of the government only, given resource constrains the country was facing.
“The Committee raised concerns with regards to the capitalisation of the Women’s Bank. The Committee recommended the need to speed up the process,” she said, adding that “Fully aware of Government’s tight budget needs, the Committee suggested that capitalisation of the bank could be done through Public Private Partnerships and some shares of the bank could be sold to individuals or companies in order to capitalise the bank but priority would be given to women investors”.
Mrs Nyamupinga said a contractor was already working on the modalities which would lead to the operationalisation of the Women’s Bank. “KPMG has been contracted by the Ministry to help establish this bank and they have moved about 50 percent of what is supposed to be done before the bank can be opened. It’s a bank that every woman, otherwise every woman is looking forward to,” she added.
Opposition MDC leader of the House and Proportional Representation legislator Thokozani Khupe said women were currently sustaining the economy through cross border trading, hence the need to operationalise the bank so they could access finance.
Zimbabwe currently has 13 commercial banks but women say they are not receiving loans for projects, hence the push for one to cater specifically for them. The women complain that banks ask them to provide collateral security at a time when their assets are registered under their husband’s names.
