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June 16, 2011 by Angela Shupe | 2 Comments

African women are ready to lead in business, but they need some help to succeed, reports Guardian.co.uk.

What leapt out from the session was the untapped potential of women entrepreneurs. A study from the bank estimated that the demand for finance from women entrepreneurs amounted to $19bn (£11.6bn).

As panellists at the session pointed out, this represented a huge missed opportunity – for financial institutions that stood to make money, and for African economies missing out on job creation from dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises.

“This is a $19bn business opportunity for financial institutions, that really is the crux,” said Nomsa Daniels, executive director of New Faces, New Voices, a women’s business group in South Africa founded by Machel.

Caleb Fundanga, governor of Zambia’s central bank, went so far as to say that growth had been held back by the inability of women entrepreneurs to obtain financing. “Growth has been retarded,” he said, urging the banking sector to give equal access to women to a general pool of funds. He also made the point that often women were a better credit risk than men as they did not spend their money on drink.

Alex Gitari, chief executive of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, agreed that “women are better borrowers and banks cannot forget this important segment of the market”.