Emmerson Njanjamangezi, Group Features Editor 
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) says it is concerned about local banks’ disproportionately masculine loan books, while women struggle to access financing.
This comes as the central bank has been implementing a four-year National Financial Inclusion Strategy 1 (NFIS 1) since 2016, in a bid to enforce equitable access and usage of financial services products across the gender divide.
Speaking at a Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) women entrepreneurs’ seminar in Harare recently, RBZ deputy director of Financial Inclusion Strategy and Microfinance Institutions, Rachael Mushosho, said the central bank was exploring ways to improve funding for women-led businesses.
“… we track loans to women from banks. While the value of loans has actually increased, in terms of contribution of those loans to the total banking sector loans, it’s a mere 6,4 percent. It’s still very low and it’s something that we are working on.”
According to the central bank’s statistics, the banking sector’s total loans and advances from January to June this year amounted to $143 billion, up from $38 billion last year.
Mushosho said the NFIS 1 ended last year and the central bank is currently crafting NFIS 2.
“We are now moving to NFIS 2 and our focus is not just access but usage of financial service sector products by women, and what is the quality of those services, is it sustainable, and can we continue to use it.
“Incorporating gender in the development of NFIS 2 is critical in promoting gender equality and women empowerment. We are looking at NFIS 2 with a gender lens to make sure that we can have sustainable usage of financial products by women,” she said.
According to a recent World Bank survey, about 90 percent of around 190 economies globally have at least one regulation that impedes women-led businesses from accessing finance.
Moreover, more than 100 economies of those 190 still prevent women from operating in certain sectors.
“Even here in Zimbabwe, there is an over-representation in activities that confirm gender stereotypes like cooking, sewing and hair salons. There are other sectors that are challenging and that probably generate more income, but there are very few women in those,” Mushosho said.
She said the central bank has also noted that 70 percent of women-led businesses are “financially-unserved or under-served”.
Zimbabwe has one of the world’s largest informal sectors, which contributes 66,6 percent of GDP. According to a Finscope survey done in 2012, 57 percent of all small businesses in the economy are owned by women.
Mushosho said barriers to finance for women-led businesses include inadequate collateral, domestic responsibilities, and low financial interest by women. “What is it that prevents women from having access to finance? We look at it from the demand side, which is from where we sit as women, what are the main barriers and restrictions?
“Mobility constraints, for example, you cannot take advantage of certain government programmes because you have to stay at home and look after the children. On the supply side, there is a lack of technical know-how on how to design products that are suitable for women. Maybe as we sit here, the kind of financial products that we require as an urban woman may be totally different from the kind of product that a rural woman would require.
“So, it’s that ability to be able to tailor-make inappropriate financial products that I have already indicated or stringent KYC requirements where you go to the bank and they say we need these documents or that document,” Mushosho further said.
Apart from the limited access to finance, Mushosho said the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the plight of women-led businesses.
“When Covid-19 hit, it had a significant negative impact on what women can do. This is because all the jobs or sectors that employ most women were affected by Covid-19. If you look at Zimbabwe, for example, 70-80 percent of women are cross-border traders in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“As a result, most women didn’t have the financial stamina to absorb the Covid-19 induced shocks,” she added.
