Addis Ababa, 17 March, 2021, ECA – A top official of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) today advocated for financial products, including mobile payments and lending solutions that target informal traders, as well as the establishment of gender desks at border areas dedicated to ending gender-based discrimination in Africa.
Thokozile Ruzvidzo, Director, Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division of the ECA, made the suggestions at a virtual event on the side-lines of the 65th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) jointly organized by the ECA and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Speaking on “the future for women small-scale and informal cross-border traders in Africa,” Ms Ruzvidzo showed how gender disparities in education, access to finance, infrastructure, bureaucracy and corruption constitute barriers to the economic potential of women traders, who are often forced to rely on expensive loan sharks to finance their business.
She called for improved access to education, finance, information and communications technology (ICT), and the design of gender-sensitive infrastructure to enhance their activities.
In her remarks, Simonetta Zarilli, Chief, Trade, Gender and Development Programme at UNCTAD, explained how e-commerce had created new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for women traders, particularly in the midst of the pandemic, and called for measures, including the expansion of digital infrastructure, to increase women’s participation in e-commerce.
Mariana Lopez, Senior Advocacy Manager GSMA Connected Women Programme, underscored the need for an enabling regulatory framework, accompanied by digital literacy and skills training to ensure that women traders effectively leverage online payment and other solutions provided through mobile technology.
Goodson Mbewe, President, Cross-border Traders’ Association (CBTA) of Zambia, called on the authorities to reduce the exorbitant cost of obtaining COVID-19 certificate atborder posts.
Nadira Bayat of the ECA, who moderated the event, spoke of the potential in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for establishing a continental simplified trade regime that would address many of the challenges confronting women small-scale and informal cross-border traders.
Issued by:
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org