By Millicent Senava Mannah
CAFOD, a Non-Governmental Organization, with support from Orange Money, Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA), GTBank, Caritas, KADDRO etc has on the 9th November 2021 launched the “Women and Girls FIRST in Sierra Leone” Project which is one that is geared towards strengthening financial resilience and improving financial inclusion among rural communities in Sierra Leone, especially among women and girls. The launching was held at the Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel in Freetown.
Chief Executive Officer of Orange Mobile Finance Sierra Leone, David Mansaray, stated that financial inclusion for women is the heart of Orange Money. He maintained that their hope is that by 2025 they will have a bulk of significant portion of the adult population having access to financial services furthering how they will be working with different partners to ensure that the system works.
He maintained that the poor representation and disadvantages women face in society in different sectors and in terms of financial inclusion show that women need far more support than they propagate. And that it is their intention that this project will be a huge milestone in that particular direction.
He stated that if they empower a woman they will not only empower the community, but they will in turn empower the entire economy. He maintained that statistics have proven that if women are put in the right places they will see the right results.
CAFOD Country Representative, Kayode Akintola, said that the project will directly target a total of 17, 250 rural community members, of which 15,000 are women and girls in 200 rural communities in 3 Districts (Kambia, Port Loko and Kenema) and that 86, 250 household members will benefit indirectly from it.
He stated that the merits of financial inclusion are strongly rooted in empowerment maintaining that access to credit is a key link between economic opportunity and economic outcome.
“By empowering individuals and families to cultivate economic opportunities, financial inclusion can be a powerful agent for strong and inclusive growth,” he argued.
The Minister of Social Welfare, Baindu Dassama, said that women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion have been recognized as key to achieving the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development stating how they are critical for gender equality.
She maintained that in the provinces women don’t have many job opportunities and they have to create opportunities for themselves to become breadwinners.
The Minister stated the need to support them in developing their own business plans, facilitating access to capital, financial services, goods and equipment.
