The Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER) has suggested that instead of establishing a new development bank, the government should focus on leveraging existing financial institutions to improve women’s access to credit.
This recommendation comes after the government allocated 51 million cedis in the 2025 budget for the proposed Women’s Bank.
During a post-budget review, ISSER Director Prof. Peter Quartey expressed concerns about the feasibility of creating a new bank, highlighting the high capital requirements and operational challenges involved.
He urged policymakers to enhance the capabilities of existing financial institutions for more effective impact.
” The concept of promoting women’s access to credit is great because when women are empowered, when women get resources, the trickle-down effect, the spillover to their families is much higher than generally when men are empowered. Research has shown that. However, I think they are banks, they are institutions that are already doing this. So, I would rather use those vehicles to reach out to women. We have a development bank, Ghana, that is there,”
Prof. Quartey continued,” Although they don’t lend to individuals, but we can make them lend to the other banks who can then unlearn to women. We have other development banks like ADB, NIB, etcetera, who can also set up a woman’s desk and lend to women. We don’t have to set up a new bank. All these banks have branches. ABB has over 87 branches across the country.”
“Are we going to set up a women’s development bank with 80 or 80 something branches? Can they reach out to everybody in the country? Do they have the resources? How much money we have been committed? I believe it’s just for feasibility studies, for hiring, for basically starting up.
They need capital.”
