Singer Hopes to Help Expand Financial Services for African Women

International music star Angelique Kidjo is the voice of a new project designed to help women across the African continent. The project is partly aimed to change laws that block millions of women from wealth and property ownership.

Kidjo spoke¹ about the project with The Associated Press, and described what she has seen over years of travel in Africa. She said women throughout the marketplaces wished they had the money and tools to do more.

"Why do banks give more loans to men versus² women? That's the question I have," she said. "Millions of women entrepreneurs in Africa, they lack loans versus the men."

Kidjo added, "And we know men pay less back than women."

Next week, the artist will help the African Development Bank launch AFAWA, or Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa. Already, the Group of Seven world's leading economies has committed $250 million to the effort. The African Development Bank is providing $1 billion, which will be deployed³ across all 54 African countries.

The goal is to raise $5 billion for efforts to guarantee loans, train women in finance and end some laws that can be barriers to getting credit.

African women face a $42-billion financing imbalance with men. In some countries, women are barred from opening bank accounts without approval from their husbands or fathers. Similarly, inheritance laws in parts of the continent often leave women with very little or even nothing.

But reforms are in progress. In 2018, a World Bank report said 32 percent of reforms in sub-Saharan African countries dealt with equal treatment for women and men in financial services. Angola, Congo and Zambia joined other countries in banning sex-based credit discrimination, the report said.

With the new fund for financing African women "we will be able to go as low as a few hundred dollars' loan ... for people who need it the most," said Vanessa Moungar, an African Development Bank official.

The AFAWA is set to launch this month in Rwanda at the Global Gender⁴ Summit. The conference gathers representatives from development banks around the world.

When Rwanda changed its own laws to give women access to land, their inclusion in financial services and products went from 36 percent to 63 percent in just four years, Moungar said.

"I want all the women out there to know what's really driving us and our hearts, Moungar said. "We are working for them and nothing else."

Words in This Story

versus - prep. used to indicate two different things, choices, etc., that are being compared or considered.

entrepreneur - n. a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money

inheritance - n. money, property, etc., that is received from someone when that person dies

fund - n. an amount of money that is used for a special purpose

access - n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

3 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。