Women are changing the face of the global economy. They are starting businesses at a faster rate than men and are making significant contributions to sustainable job creation and global economic growth.
Despite women also facing the biggest challenges in the face of a global pandemic, the resilience and tenacity of women to fight back and come out stronger cannot be overemphasized. As a matter of fact, most of the countries that have faced the pandemic with effective and efficient strategies and succeeded are led by women.
In Ghana, women make up 49.32% of the entire population (World Bank Collection of Development Indicators, 2019) and the female labor force participation rate is estimated at 63.46% (ILO, 2020). According to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), Ghana has the highest percentage of Women Business Owners worldwide.
Even with these impressive data, the barrier to accessing capital, receiving adequate training and capacity building is higher for women than men.
To address the many challenges that women entrepreneurs face, CalBank PLC established the Women’s Banking Unit (WBU) in November 2018 with the core mandate of identifying, developing, and promoting Women Owned and Women Led Businesses.
The Unit drives this agenda by employing the following.
- Building Capacity in women through initiatives such as training workshops, conferences, trade fairs, etc.
- Providing funding for Women in Business to meet the business and financial needs of women.
- Creating networking opportunities (B2B) for women in business to engage and foster stronger business relationships with other female led businesses. We believe we must support our like to thrive if we want to carve a place for ourselves at the table.
- Supporting female entrepreneurs and female led businesses with flexible credit facilities with concessionary terms.
The CalBank Women’s Banking Unit (WBU) provides a bouquet of bespoke banking solutions such as transactional accounts, trade financing, high yielding investment solutions and financing solutions such as Overdrafts, Term Loans, Working Capital Support, Home Improvement Loans, Auto Loans etc.
These and many more other digital solutions are uniquely and creatively designed to meet the financial needs of Women and Women Entrepreneurs. With these solutions, we believe women entrepreneurs are poised to take on the world. The highlight of the unique features of these solutions include concessionary rates, flexible collateral arrangements and a quick turnaround time.
All these solutions are deployed through our branch network and the use of our Digital Banking platforms.
The Unit, since its inception, continues to offer financial assistance to many women and women entrepreneurs. We believe that success in the future would not be complete without Women and Women Businesses, hence our commitment to championing the course of Women Empowerment and Advancement
On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, we say AYEKOO to all our Gallant Women, be it in business, in the frontline fighting the coronavirus pandemic or at home grooming the next batch of world female leaders; we are proud of you and we celebrate you. We also celebrate all our female staff at CalBank helping to create an iconic brand in CalBank and in the Ghanaian financial services industry. The Women’s Banking Unit and the Bank appreciate and support your efforts.
CalBank, FORWARD TOGETHER!
