AfDB allocates US $ 320,000 grant for gender mainstreaming in ECOWAS digital financial operations

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has awarded a grant of $ 320,535 to the West African Monetary Agency in order to promote the integration of gender in the frameworks basic regulations governing digital financial services (DFS) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The grant will be used to conduct a gender gap analysis that features in several West African Monetary Agency (WAMA) strategies, including those related to financial inclusion, data analysis disaggregated by gender, digital payment infrastructure and services, and digital identity. The project, which will be implemented over three years, will potentially reach up to 350 million people in the fifteen ECOWAS member countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau , Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The funds will come from the Facility for Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa (AFDI), a blended finance mechanism, supported by the African Development Bank Group. “With a secretariat representing the fifteen central banks of ECOWAS, WAMA plays a central role in consolidating and implementing strategic objectives regarding financial inclusion. AFDI and the AMAO project team will work closely with other ecosystem actors in the region to ensure harmonization of efforts to create maximum impact ”, said Sheila Okiro, Coordinator of AFDI. The project aims to increase women's participation in the operations of the region's digital financial market to 35%, which has a greater gender disparity than in other parts of the continent, according to its Gender Development Index of 0.825 for an average African 0.871. According to the 2017 Global Findex report, the gender mainstreaming gap is 11% in Africa while the global average is 9%. To meet this challenge, it is imperative that gender is mainstreamed across all functions, but more at the policy and regulatory level. The project is aligned with AFDI's strategic objectives, including its cross-sectoral component on gender inclusion, as well as the African Development Bank Group's Ten-Year Strategy, the Gender Strategy (2021-2025) and its strategic priority “Integrating Africa”, which is one of the “High 5”. The Facility for Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa (AFDI) (www.ADFI.org/en) is a pan-African instrument designed to accelerate digital financial inclusion across the continent. Its goal is to provide access to the official financial system to some 332 million additional Africans, 60% of whom are women. AFDI's current partners are the French Development Agency (AFD), the French Treasury, the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Luxembourg, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the African Development Bank, which hosts the fund.