Coop Bank launches initiative to ease women’s access to financial services

By Simon Deng

The Cooperative Bank South Sudan on Friday launched initiative known as “Mara Muhtaram Women’s Account” to ease access to financial services for women entrepreneurs in the country.

“As cooperative Bank, we are rolling out a product with special features to support and empower women, come to bank, open special account and it will become a bridge through which you will be able to access financing,” said John Murugu, the Chairman of Cooperative Bank Group during celebration of International Women’s Day in Beijing Hotel in Juba.

 The celebration was organized by Cooperative Bank South Sudan in recognition of the great contribution made by women across the globe.

  “We are looking up to support our women entrepreneurs who are doing small, medium and large scale business in South Sudan and we are focusing on gender responsive financing,” said Murugu.

He said they are aiming to empower women so that they can open up to 50 percent of bank accounts with the bank.

 “We believe in empowerment of our girls, we believe in empowerment of women in business,” said Murugu.

Akuja Mading De Garang, the Team Leader for Girl Education in South Sudan (GESS) said that financial inclusion plays important role in the life of women, adding that access to finance is very important in reducing poverty.

“When women have access to finance it will enable them to save, invest and access credit which they can use to start their business and that will improve their livelihoods not only for their families but also their communities and the country as a whole,” said Garang.

“Access to finance allows women to manage financial risk better and that will increase overall economic resilience, this is important given what we experience around economic downturn,” she added.

Jemma Nunu Kumba, the Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly said that women lack access to finance for business startup, adding that the Mara Muhtaram initiative will enable women to be more financially independent.

Josephine Lagu, the National Minister of Agriculture and Food Security said that progress has been made in promoting women in both political and public arena under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.

“The revitalized peace agreement in recognition of the disadvantaged position of women in the society and in the country opted for 35 percent affirmative action to enable women to get into political and public arena,” said Lagu.

“We need to emphasize the role of women in the society, when you invest in women you accelerate development, as the mother ministry for cooperative development, we hold the cooperative of investing in women of enabling women,” she added.

International Women’s Day was celebrated under the theme “Invest in women, accelerate progress”.