Source: The Swazi Observer
Plans to establish the first ever Women's Bank in Swaziland are progressing well, chairperson of the Swaziland Women Economic Empowerment Trust (SWEET) Sibongile Mdluli, who is also the deputy governor at the Central Bank of Swaziland said yesterday.

SWEET has already collaborated with the Swaziland Building Society (SBS) for the provision of technical expertise as well as to speed up logistics of establishing the bank.
Mdluli explained in the radio programme letishisako that through the collaboration with SBS, women interested in joining the soon to be established bank can now open special savings bank accounts with the society, which are specially directed towards the Trust.
"All women, whether in their individual capacities or through their cooperative trusts or associations are invited to open accounts with the Swaziland Building Society. Money deposited in these accounts will be specially channeled towards the SWEET," she said.
The SWEET executive took advantage of the marula/buganu festivities to conduct civic education exercises on how the Women's Bank will be established and to explain to women why it is important to join the bank initiatives now in its initial stages.
"The maganu ceremonies recently held in the country gave us an opportunity to speak with large numbers of women who attended. It was a perfect opportunity for us to educate women about the bank and to answer unanswered questions, which may have lingered on their minds concerning this project. At the end of the day, SWEET is an initiative which will empower Swazi women."
In another matter, Mdluli disclosed that SWEET had forwarded a proposal to MTN's 'hamba mali' team, where they sought for a collaboration. "We know that MTN has made the process to conduct financial transactions easier, which is why we have written a proposal which if approved, will make things much easier for women wishing to send money to the Building Society. We hope the proposal will meet the most favourable response at MTN," she said. SWEET is a brainchild of Her Majesty the Indlovukazi who came up with the idea of establishing a Women's Bank in Swaziland. The National African Federation Chamber of Commerce Industry in South Africa recently pledged E50 million towards this initiative.
Tanzania was the first African country to open an all-women's bank. The Tanzania Women's Bank was opened to support women's economic activities.
It is the 28th bank in Tanzania and has 500 customers already, 70 percent of whom are women. Mdluli explained that a gender specific bank would be a milestone for Swaziland, a country where many women find it hard to access banking sevices despite their enormous contribution to economic development.

• Swaziland