By BRIAN HATYOKA –
FINANCE Minister Felix Mutati has urged commercial banks to come up with deliberate interventions to encourage women to access funds for their businesses.
Mr Mutati said women wanted to grow their businesses, but they had challenges to access funds such as requirements for them to have collateral and a steady cash flow.
He said women no longer looked for handouts, but looked to be connected to business transactions.
Mr Mutati was speaking in Livingstone on Monday when he gave a keynote address at the Global Banking Alliance (GBA) for Women Master Class and All Stars Africa Academy conference.

He said statistics indicated that women were great borrowers and their default rate was low when compared to men.
“You can introduce a common man or common woman’s account where there are no fees to encourage women to open such bank accounts. The ultimate collateral should be the same woman because women, especially those who are usually disadvantaged can’t ran away. These are usually on fixed aboard,” Mr Mutati said.
Mr Mutati said women were not looking for sympathy, but business opportunities to leverage their activities.
He said the Government was carrying out a number reforms to simplify and create opportunities for women in the country.
Mr Mutati said the Government was committed to creating a favourable environment and stability in the economy to stimulate borrowing by both women and men.
He said there was need to create the necessary liquidity in the banking sector to encourage more women to access funds for their businesses.
Mr Mutati said most women had challenges to access markets for their products.
He said his Ministry would this week introduce a motion on the introduction of commodity exchange where women could keep their products as they wait to have markets for their products.
Bank of Zambia deputy Governor in charge of administration Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula said excluding women in the economy was to remove US$ 12trillion from the economy.
Dr Mabula was speaking during a panel discussion with female representatives from the Bank of Liberia and Central Bank of Kenya on a topic “Expanding Financial Services in Africa: the Role of the Public Sector”.