The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, has urged women to leverage technology to break the digital bias.

According to her, Elsie Addo Awadzi, there are vast opportunities in the digital space women can take advantage of.

This, she believes, will increase women’s participation in the 4th industrial revolution as well as increase the economic participation of women. 

Speaking at the International Women’s Day dialogue organised by the United Nations Capital Development Fund and the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo-Awadzie said “if we’re going to be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Gender Empowerment, we need to leverage the power of technology.”

“There are vast opportunities for women to advance themselves through online education and skills acquisition, access to telemedicine, increased trading in goods and services with more digital payment options. For example, a woman in the village can sit in her bedroom and sell something using mobile money as a payment channel.”

Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, pledged the ministry’s commitment to ensure the participation of women in economic development.

“Digitalisation and data can help accelerate the empowerment of women as builders of digital economies. Discussing how to unleash the potential of data and digital solutions to drive decision-making to benefit women economic empowerment is a key focus area the gender will support”.

“The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection will commit to supporting a coalition of the willing between the public and private sectors to increase women’s participation in the workforce and leadership to drive a digital economy ecosystem”, she added.

Country Lead for United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Enea Stocco, highlighted some feats his outfit has achieved in the hope of breaking the bias for women.

“UNCDF is implementing tailored actions to improve the access and usage of financial services with a particular focus on vulnerable women as one of the key targets of group beneficiaries. In order to promote sustainability and efficiency of the proposed intervention, UNCDF is using a human centring design approach to develop financial and digital services to start from women needs”.

“UNCDF is offering a full range of digital financial services ranging from savings, loans as well as remittances and financial literacy, finally contributing to bridging the gender gap,” he outlined.