Former President John Mahama and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) say they will establish zero interest bank to empower women entrepreneurs across the country.
According to the NDC Flagbearer, the Women Development Bank will be situated in all major markets in Ghana as a direct response to practical measures to lift women from poverty.
He says the Bank and the 24-hour economy initiative will provide jobs avenues for Ghanaians under his administration.
In a statement on his X platform, Mr Mahama said “On 7th December, I will need your vote to RESET our beloved country, Ghana, fix the broken economy, create decent and well-paying jobs for the youth through the 24-hour economy initiative and establish a National Women’s Bank to provide financial assistance to one million women businesses.
Explaining the concept of the Woman Development Bank further, Prof. John Gatsi, Dean of the University of Cape Coast School of Business said Development Bank is completely difference from Commercial Bank.
“A Women Development bank is an intentional strategy to economically empower women in the country to get access to long term credits at either zero interest or lower interest rates than commercial banks.
Development banks in general are different from commercial banks. The latter grants mostly short-term loans with high interest rates putting burden on recipients. This creates great interest burden and difficulty for the growth of business.” – Prof Gatsi said.
For John Gatsi who is a member of the Finance team of the NDC Manifesto Committee, “The best way to reduce poverty drastically is through the provision of development credits to women entrepreneurs.” arguing that “Normally, since Women Development bank is a special class of development bank, it normally receives seed money from international development and financial institutions, domestic government, foreign governments, foundations and NGOs.”
“There are people who are concerned about the zero interest or low interest charge by indicating concern about the survival of the bank. We have even seen some on lending development facilities in agriculture and other sectors through the normal commercial banks.
In such a case, the interest rates are very low. So, the setup and operation of a development bank is different from that of a commercial bank. The zero interest loan portfolios of the development bank will attract interest from Islamic Development bank.” – he added
