Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mrs Elsie Addo-Awadzie, has encouraged women in entrepreneurship to be bold in taking up credit facilities from banks to grow their businesses.

According to her, women need to explore various financial instruments for growth including the Ghana Stock Exchange. Mrs Addo-Awadzie explained that due to the reluctance by women to take such financial risk, they do not realize the growth they desire to see in their businesses.

Speaking at the 2nd Anniversary of the AGI Women in Business, themed: ‘Women-led Businesses: Exploring Finance Channels and Market Access for Growth’, Mrs Addo-Awadzie indicated that it is a general phenomenon for women to develop anxiety over taking such financial risk towards their business interests. However, she noted that data shows that women do better in “loan repayment”. By this, she urged women to go for loans expressing the belief that securing the needed loans to expand their business is crucial.

“Women entrepreneurs must also be bold to step up. I have seen too many opportunities… where government for example puts in place the small business loans in the midst of the pandemic, you find out that some women were hesitant to apply and even when they did, they asked for very little. The male counterparts were fewer in terms of applicants but they asked for much more. They were bolder in their request. And evidence all around the world shows that even when women borrow money, they’re borrowing too little for their businesses and so they don’t reap the benefits. Women are typically risk-averse compared to their male counterparts… It is important for women entrepreneurs and female-led businesses not to be risk-averse to credit facilities”.
Mrs Elsie Addo-Awadzie

Women in entrepreneurship

On her part, Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Kati Csaba announced a women-focused bilateral trade agreement between Ghana and Canada. She indicated that the collaboration will position some 31,000 women enterprises in direct access to funding worth 100,000 Canadian dollars.

The Canadian High Commissioner expressed that when women are able to develop their full “economic potential”, whether as business leaders, entrepreneurs or producers, economies thrive and the benefits of growth reach more people.

“The Canadian government is very interested in women enterprises. By that, we have developed and introduced Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. Ghanaian women need more opportunities to succeed and greater control over resources and decision making.”
Kati Csaba

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA), Mrs Kosi Yankey-Aryeh, revealed that there are an all-round “women support services” to ensure female-led businesses scale up “amid the scourge of the pandemic”.

She advised businesspersons to take charge of the operations of their businesses, indicating that her outfit is doing them a “disservice” once it keeps pumping money into their businesses.

“So, as we explore the finance channels, we need to explore the capacity development of the businesses to make them sustainable to the point where you will not need to come and ask for money from us. We are very appreciative of the work you have been doing for yourself and we’ve seen some of you grow in ways I can’t even complement you enough for and we want to continue to support you to grow”.
Mrs Kosi Yankey-Aryeh

President-elect of the Association of Ghana Industries, Dr. Humphrey Anin-Darkeh, speaking at the event revealed that his leadership will be focused on the promotion and sustenance of women-led businesses in the country.