Banks and other deposit-taking institutions in the country are now required to submit their monthly prudential returns to it on a sex-disaggregated basis.
This new move introduced by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) is to be collected in an online reporting portal, is to give the Bank a full view of the gender dynamics in the financial sector.
It is also part of efforts by the central bank to help address current data constraints on gender in the financial sector and help to provide critical data for the evidence-based design of policymaking, regulation and supervisory measures, as well as financial products and services, Dr Addison told executives in the financial sector in Africa.
Dr Addison made the revelation at the launch of the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Finance Series in Accra on Wednesday.
AFAWA is an initiative by the African Development Bank (AfDB) meant to, among other things, unlock up to $3 billion in finances for women in the small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) space in Africa.
It was launched at a two-day workshop that brought together experts on finance, SMEs and gender to deliberate on how to improve women-led businesses to help uplift the continent.
It aims to reduce the funding gap facing women entrepreneurs on the continent, which is estimated to be $42 billion.
It will run for five years and has the Ghana Association of Banks as a local partner.
Credit market
Beyond using regulations to encourage financial institutions to support female-led entrepreneurs, the BoG Governor gave an assurance that the central bank would
continue to strengthen its critical credit markets infrastructure such as the credit bureau-based credit reporting system and our Collateral Registry.
These, he said, were critical in helping to facilitate lending to MSMEs and women-owned businesses.
“We also continue to ensure that our regulation of the payments space is supportive of innovation and inclusion by allowing financial technologies (fintechs) and other payments system service providers to partner with banks and other licensed financial institutions to provide innovative financial services that are convenient, cost-effective and responsive to the unique needs of women entrepreneurs,” he added.
