By YEMISI IZUORA
It is no longer news that gender gap in Nigeria represents a major issue to be resolved if the country is to achieve the targets it set in its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS).
This gender gap is larger than in most other countries, and whilst nancial inclusion is increasing for both men and women, the gender gap is widening.1 In contrast, comparator countries in Africa such as Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda all exhibit a decreasing gender gap.
Women are less likely to be formally included than men, even when controlling for levels of income, education and trust. Given the NFIS’s ambition
to increase formal inclusion as the preferred status, it is vital to look beyond absolute exclusion and to understand the gendered drivers of these differences when designing interventions.
According to World Bank, women comprise 43.83 per cent of the labour force, and 43 per cent of businesses worldwide are owned by women.
Despite increased financial services in Africa’s biggest economy in the last decade, 98 per cent of women still lack access to formal credit markets, according to a recent report by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisor (RPA) ‘s Gender Centre of Excellence. Also, Women and girls have limited access to education and healthcare, lack economic autonomy, and are under-represented in decision-making at all levels.
Unfortunately, in the area of pension reforms, poor disposable incomes have affected Federal Government’s plan to mobilise N3 trillion from the informal sector under its Micro Pension Plan (MPP) by 2024.
Under the scheme, the amount is expected to form part of the contributory pension asset pool, which is estimated at N14.99 trillion thus witnessing N568.33 billion growth.
The plan is gloomy and looking a bit unrealistic as operators in the informal sector struggle to survive under weak economic growth, rising unemployment, poor access to funding for businesses, a declining standard of living among households, and high inflation, which mostly affect the women.
These challenges have hindered appetite for savings. The MPP, an initiative of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) was designed to provide pension services to self-employed people in the informal sector and employees of organisations with less than three staff, to achieve coverage of 30 million people in the informal sector within the timeframe.
One year after the launch of MPP, the pension industry is yet to mobilise 100,000 contributors and N100 billion from the critical sector, a development that has reduced the confidence level of the ambitious target.
Nigeria has approximately 59.6 million workers in the informal sector with 41 million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
But Aisha Dahir-Umar the Acting Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), said not withstanding the challenges the Agency is targeting 30 million pension contributors by 2024 under the Micro Pension Plan (MPP).
She says the MPP will reduce old-age dependency on extended family.
The Blue Blossom Community To Women Rescue
Stanbic IBTC Holdings, a member of Standard Bank Group, launch of its Blue Blossom community, is coming to bring smiles to women in Nigeria.
It is a gathering of women from diverse backgrounds who come together to support each other while leveraging various benefits offered by the financial institution to meet the unique needs of the Nigerian woman
The Blue Blossom Community is a value proposition from Stanbic IBTC which gives all women – 18 years and above access to various discounted financial solutions, including savings, investment, insurance, pensions, trusts, and loans for personal or business use.
Oriental News Nigeria reports the obvious advantage this intervention would record in their pension and insurance especially for women that appear to be largely excluded .
The community enables women to access financial and non-financial services, from banking to non-banking services, including investments, retirement services, children’s accounts, and free access to capacity-building sessions and special events.
Blue Blossom Community is an offshoot of the Stanbic IBTC Blue Blossom account, a special bank account targeted at women that gives them financial and non-financial benefits.
Some of our non-financial benefits include: Invitation to niche events throughout the year. For example, ArtX, WIMBIZ., Access to free capacity-building training
Access to financial fitness events for account holders minor (less than 18 years).
Invitation to the Stanbic IBTC Trade Club, Access to financial fitness events for blue blossom account holders, Free risk advisory to account holders on home insurance
Free claims management to account holders on home insurance.
The initiative is beautifully designed with financial benefits which include Zero Current Account Maintenance fee, 50 per cent concession on loan fees for all business loan types (except SME lite), Maximum interest rate at MPR+5.5
Branded collaterals (Debit card and chequebook).
Another feature is accessing N1,000,000 with as low as N5,000 monthly premium when a named parent below the age of 70 years is lost, Authorized Repair Limit of N100,000 on motor insurance, Medical expenses to the car owner (30,000) and other vehicle occupants (N30,000 each to a maximum of N100,000).
There is also 5 per cent concession on SME Lite interest rate, Access to the PlusRewards loyalty programme as a Merchant or Beneficiary.
Insure household contents worth up to N2m for as low as 10,000, 1.5 per cent concession on the pricing for the annual travel insurance plan for a family (two parents and three children), Access to a 20 per cent discount set up fee on Education Trust, Access to a 33.3 per cent discount on Comprehensive Will service and 10 per cent discount on home insurance.
This initiative is a bouquet of opportunities to enable women access financial and non-financial services, from banking services to non-banking services, including investments, retirement services, children accounts, free access to capacity-building sessions and special events.
Speaking on the community, Remy Osuagwu, Executive Director, Business and Commercial Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, stated that women are the backbone of established societies and thus must be supported to contribute to growing communities in Nigeria. He said, “When women are exposed to and groomed in the art and science of business, coupled with receiving equitable financial services with affordable credit facilities, their potential for growth, leadership, and success is boundless.”
Remy described the Blue Blossom community as a multi-value platform that seeks to provide an enabling ecosystem for women as young as 18 and nurture them into their best versions.
Emi Agaba-Oloja, Executive Director, Stanbic IBTC Trustees Limited, in her statement, said, “Women must maximise their gifts of organisation and nurture in business, career, and family. We have factored these into the Blue Blossom community to foster a sense of togetherness and serve as a reservoir of resources among Nigerian women from all walks of life.”
Emphasising and highlighting the benefits of belonging to the community, Emi said the benefits of being a member of the community included free business clinic, career or business development sessions, mentorship through masterclasses, access to CHESS account for their children/wards, access to market and network via community and many more.
“The community is open to every woman, and you do not necessarily need to own an account with Stanbic IBTC to be a member of the Blue Blossom community. However, to have unhindered access to financial services, you may need to open an account”, Sadiya Ojo, Head, Consumer Clients, Stanbic IBTC Bank said, urging women to seize the opportunities the community presents to build themselves.
The Blue Blossom Community has translated women’s concerns and has presented a solution to enable them to unlock their potential to bloom and take their rightful places in the world.