Source: Vanguard
The Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC  Aruma Oteh has identified disparities in financial access, asset/land ownership, income, access to education and poor representation in decision making positions as the greatest threat to women entrepreneurs. 

She made the observation while speaking at the third annual lecture of Women in Management, Business and Public Service, WIMBIZ held in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme: “Repositioning for global relevance: opportunities and realities,” Oteh decried the challenges confronting women especially as it regards access to finance and education.  According to her “Despite the progress made in enabling women realize their potential, there are many important challenges that must be addressed. These include: disparities between men and women in terms of access to finance, asset and land ownership, earnings, representation in decision-making positions, etc.”

She explained that, “Women all over the world are faced with societal realities that threaten to limit their achievements. For women entrepreneurs the most significant of these challenges is poor access to credit. A recent study by the IFC showed that women-owned SMEs are particularly a financially underserved segment. They are not only less likely to obtain formal financing; they also often pay higher interest rates.

 

“A Gallup World Poll in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa shows that, on average, women have less access to basic banking services and they are more likely to rely on internal or informal sources of funding such as their own savings or loans from family and friends, church, microfinance institutions, etc to start a business. This seems absurd as it is widely reported that women are better debtors than men.”

She however said that despite the challenges Nigeria and the entire Africa still hold enormous opportunities for creating wealth and charged the women to participate actively in the quest to exploit the opportunities.

 

According to her, Africa has had the fastest growing economy in the past five years and that means lots of economic opportunities for its people and businesses. She said women should make efforts to exploit the opportunities instead of allowing foreign investors to reap the whole opportunities.

She further tasked the women to take advantages of the opportunities that abound in various sectors of the Nigerian economy including, power, information and communication technology, oil and gas as in order to leverage the government’s privatization move which is opening up more investment opportunities. She charged the women to invest and save as it is the surest avenue to creating enduring wealth.

• Nigeria