The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has begun disbursement of the $15 million women empowerment fund targeted at supporting women owned business initiatives in the country, Norah Mukura, the central bank’s deputy director in the Bank supervision division has said.
In an interview with 263Chat, Mukura said disbursement of the fund is being done through banks.
“The fund is specifically targeted for women owned businesses and we recently started to disburse the funds through the banks, so women will simply go to their banks and micro finance institutions were they can access these funds,” said Mukura.
She added that they have a working group under their financial inclusion implementation that is focusing on financial literacy, education and consumer protection.
“For women to know where and how to get the money, we have a working group under our financial inclusion implementation that is focusing on financial literacy, education and consumer protection issues.
“So through that we will be addressing some of those challenges so that women will take up these facilities that we are offering and improve their lives.
Mukura further emphasized that the fund will benefit every woman in Zimbabwe including students in Higher and Tertiary institutions.
“There is a fund for business linkage facility that is focusing on agriculture activities for small holders and women in rural areas can also benefit from that.
“There is also a fund for the disabled and obviously women are going to benefit from that as well and there is also another fund for higher and tertiary education whereby students can access the funds and women can also benefit from that ,”said Mukura.
