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Iconic Singer Hopes to Help African Women Get Credit

Associated Press

   JOHANNESBURG - The insect-eaten money fluttered in pieces to the floor.
   For global music star Angelique Kidjo, that image of her grandmother
   having to use a closet as a bank is driving her desire to see African
   women leap the many obstacles to obtaining credit -- and respect.

   The Benin-born singer, one of Africa's iconic artists and a
   collaborator with Philip Glass and others, is the voice of a new
   project aimed in part at rewriting laws across the continent that
   prevent millions of women from becoming a more powerful economic force.

   In an interview with The Associated Press, Kidjo described what she has
   seen over decades of travel in Africa during which women in vibrant
   marketplaces wished they had the means to do more.

   "Why do banks give more loans to men versus women? That's the question
   I have," she said. "Millions of women entrepreneurs in Africa, they
   lack loans versus the men. Once again, we come back to this patriarchy.
   And we know men pay less back than women."

   Women invest 90%

   Every time credit is refused to African women, who invest some 90% of
   what they earn in educating their children and supporting families and
   communities as opposed to about 40% for men, it's a disaster, Kidjo
   said.

   "We're taking up reducing the poverty rate in Africa to the smallest
   number ever. That's my passion. That's why I'm here," she added.

   She will help the African Development Bank next week launch AFAWA, or
   Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa. Already the G-7 group
   of the world's major democracies has committed $250 million, and the
   bank is providing $1 billion for the project that will be deployed
   across all 54 countries.

   The goal is to raise $5 billion for efforts that include helping to
   guarantee loans, training women on financial matters and eliminating
   laws and regulations that make accessing credit more difficult. African
   women face a $42 billion financing gap even though 1 in 4 starts or
   manages a business, the highest percentage in the world, the bank says.

   In some African countries, women can't open a bank account without
   their husband or father, or inheritance laws leave them with little or
   nothing. That means no collateral.

   Reforms taking hold

   But reforms are catching on. In the World Bank's latest Women, Business
   and Law report in 2018, 32% of reforms tracked in sub-Saharan African
   countries addressed equal treatment for women and men in accessing
   credit and financial services. Angola, Congo and Zambia joined others
   in prohibiting gender-based credit discrimination, it 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, the African Development Bank's
   Chadian-French director of gender, women and civil society.

   She was not ready to announce further pledges but said talks are
   continuing with potential donor countries, including African ones. With
   the continent's 1.2 billion population expected to double by 2050, the
   pressure for growth is huge.

   "Look, women are one of the most powerful forces of nature on this
   continent," Moungar said. "If they can be economically empowered,
   transformation will be fast-tracked like we've never seen."

   Launching along with the new financing project is an index to assess
   how commercial banks are performing.

   "When they come to us for more (loans) we'll say, 'What have you done
   for women?'" Moungar said.

   The project is also turning accountability on itself, with Kidjo and
   other ambassadors meant to speak up if they think the project isn't
   moving quickly or effectively enough.

   "I'm not a very patient person," Kidjo said. "Those women, they don't
   have time to waste. Their livelihood is in danger. I'm gonna be very
   strict."

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