A NATION that does not value its women is likely to lag behind in development, United States of America President Barack Obama recently observed when he visited Kenya.
Indeed governments, civil society and corporate institutions need to develop policies which advocate for women’s economic empowerment.
These policies can include safeguarding women’s access to loans and other financial services and ensuring that their contributions to the economy are valued and respected.
Developing opportunities for vocational training is yet another initiative to empower women.
When women are empowered, development and well-being also flourish.

. Mrs Lungu

Therefore, First Lady Esther Lungu was spot-on when she stated that financial inclusion of women and girls would have far-reaching benefits for them and Zambia as a whole.
When she officiated at the launch of Access Bank Zambia’s Women (W) Banking Initiative in Lusaka, Ms Lungu said there was consensus that increased financial inclusion of women and girls significantly contributed to sustainable economic and social growth.
She noted that women’s financial exclusion was one of the clearest examples of gender inequality in the developing world.
The First Lady noted that Zambia had seen a rise in the number of women contributing to economic development despite facing several challenges in uplifting their living standards.
She cited some of the obstacles as failure to access banking services because of some cumbersome processes of opening accounts, high interest rate charges on credit facilities and high collateral requirements for credit facilities.
Access Bank’s W Initiative, like Ms Lungu observed, has brought hope of bridging any gaps Zambia faced regarding women’s financial inclusion.
The bank is setting pace for other players in the industry to take deliberate steps which focus on women.
Access Bank Zambia managing director, Tunde Balogun said that the institution felt time was ripe to take deliberate steps to change the financial inequality against women through inclusive banking.
This inclusive banking is expected to provide the women with access to finances, education and market potential.
Access Bank’s W Initiative comes just a few weeks after Mr Obama announced at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya that the United States would set up a resource centre for women entrepreneurs in Zambia.
The United States will in fact build three centres in Africa, starting with Zambia before shifting to Kenya and later Mali at a cost of US$1 billion.
Already $100 million has been raised for young female entrepreneurs in Africa from the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Putting an end to gender discrimination needs community-level initiatives which should alter attitudes, and also national and international policies to promote women’s rights and ambitions.
So for Zambia to achieve its full potential, the nation needs to rely on the talents and skills of all the people with at least half being women.