IFC chief: How to promote PPP and financial inclusion

QUESTION: Tell us how your vast experience in the corporate and financial sectors has shaped you into the leader that you are today and how you use that experience to empower other women at a personal and organisational level.

A lot of people don’t know that I’m a chemical engineer by training. That knowledge prepared me for the financial sector. When I moved into finance while in Nigeria and later joined the IFC, I was able to ensure that my team members and members of other teams I worked with had active women. I made sure that women were not silent but part of the conversation. When they had ideas, we made sure that they were listened to.

Sometimes, when a female colleague says something and a male colleague says the exact same thing, it’s the male colleague’s contribution that will be acknowledged.

So, what we started doing is, when a female colleague says something and it’s not acknowledged, another female colleague will say, “What she said”. The male colleagues also caught on to this. This ensured that female colleagues got their fair share of recognition.

Research shows that when more women are part of the workforce, they can significantly increase the GDP. However, the gender gap still remains relatively wide. Why is this the case?

There’s this joke, which is part of the truth, that goes: If a guy can say Bonjour! he will say he speaks French. But if a woman cannot have a full conversation in French, she thinks that she has to do it 110 percent before she tries. But a guy will try either way with just 40 to 50 percent of the knowledge.

This means that we have to work on our women to build their confidence. They need to understand that they can do it. It doesn’t have to be 110 percent. They need to apply, look at what they can do, identify the gap, and look at ways to fill the gap.

How does the IFC address the dichotomy of gender disparity in the labour market and also in the entrepreneurial space?

We have had a number of programmes, such as Finance2Equal, that essentially try to demystify the knowledge and the things women need to do in order to get ahead. But that is more in the world of corporate structures.

In the SMEs and rural marketplace, it’s more a question of actually helping them to be able to access finance in a way that is suitable to the structure of the economy that they are in, because a lot of the time they don’t have collateral.

We also train banks to understand how to lend to such categories of society. Doing a corporate loan is very different from providing finance to an MSME.

We also train the women on how they can package themselves better.

Despite the efforts to boost women’s access to finance, gender disparity in access to loans and other financial instruments remains high.

What could be the reasons and possible solutions, and how long will it take for the scales to balance?

I wish I had a crystal ball to say how long it will take. But I think that with the push that everyone is doing and the realization by a lot of banks and development partners about the gaps in gender finance, I think we will get there sooner rather than later.

Digital inclusion enables financial inclusion. As such, women’s access to online education is critical. What’s the current status in East Africa?

Statistics indicate that 68 percent of men have access to cellphones, while for women it is in the 50s. And of those women with access, very few actually engage in online commerce. If we are able to provide training and help more women get online and participate in online commerce, the number of female entrepreneurs who are active in this space will go up.

As the market for adult online learning is expected to more than double by 2026, how’s the IFC working with local innovators to address Tanzania’s EdTech challenges?

There are a number of technology hubs in Tanzania and Kenya that we are looking to work with.

There are also business development providers who may not necessarily be in the same location as women, but when women are able to get online, they can access online training.

If we are able to reduce the cost of online access in the country, it will increase the number of people who can go online, which will increase the ability to access EdTech services.

What reforms does Tanzania need to do in order to attract private sector partners in infrastructure, the sector that is costing the government trillions of shillings in financing megaprojects with borrowed funds?

Projects are not mere projects but solutions to a problem. So, public-private partnerships (PPP) are the way to go. The government can use other people’s money to develop today what needs to be developed and then pay the cost over a period of time—that is essentially what a PPP is.

In order to get other people to use their money to develop a government project, you have to ensure that the policies and regulations are equitable, sustainable over time, consistent, and predictable.

Also, in order for PPP to work, the risks have to be shared. There are risks that can be borne by the private sector and those that must be borne by the government.

Issues like corruption control, the rule of law, and accountability are said to be areas that need improvement in Africa. How do development partners such as the IFC ensure that beneficiary countries are held to account on these parameters?

IFC finances the private sector. In the case of PPPs, IFC will finance the private party that has undertaken the project. We finance private sector entities that have been commissioned to undertake a certain project through a legal agreement.

Before financing a private partner, we investigate how they won the concession: was it through a fair and transparent bid? How did the company come about? If these things are not clear, we tend not to work with such companies.

As we are celebrating women this month, what’s your word of advice to women out there?

Women need to make sure that they are part of the conversation. We should not let others tell our stories. We need to be bold, but make sure that we deliver.