By Priscilla Oye Ofori
Accra, Feb. 6, GNA – The African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), Ghana, has urged President John Dramani Mahama to prioritise the economic empowerment of women.
Dr Charity Binka, Chairperson, AWLN Ghana, said empowering women economically was critical in addressing many of the issues that confronted them.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, she said empowering women financially would enable those in abusive relationships and unable to leave due to financial constraints to do so.
Dr Binka said some women could not get involved in politics because of how commercialised it had become.
‘‘…We need the resources to get into politics, some people cannot even take care of their health and many other things. So, we expect the Government to actually pay attention to the economic empowerment of women and inclusion,’’ she said.
She said in the past the Women World Banking, a private financial institution, had its license revoked by the Bank of Ghana in addition to other banking institutions and savings and loans companies in the financial clean-up exercise.
Dr Binka advised that in the establishment of the Women’s Development Bank, dedicated to economically empowering women in Ghana, as promised by President Mahama, it should be mandated to address the collateral and other loan-related issues
‘‘But then they also want to try to find out what went wrong with past initiatives, what lessons they can learn so that this bank does not fall into the same problems or does not face the same challenges as those citied. So, I think they can learn from the past to build on this one to make sure that it works.’’
GNA