The Country Director of UN Women in South Sudan, Delphine Serumaga, has called for women’s access to loan services by financial institutions and the inclusion of women in leadership to help eradicate poverty and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking during a panel discussion organized by UN Women as part of the Women`s Day celebration in Juba, Serumaga said women`s contribution, especially in the informal sector, is immense in keeping families together but gender equality remains in the dark.
“The unemployment rate for women is 93 percent, and for men, it is 90 percent. But we also know that in the informal sector, we do have women working, doing what they do to keep the family together,” she explained. “The economic dependency for women is 82 percent, and for men, it is 75 percent. Despite corporate commitments to gender equality implementation, transparency remains stagnant, with no more than 1 percent growth since 2022.”
Serumaga urged banks to ensure access to loans for women to empower them to move forward.
“Only 1 percent of households have formal banking accounts, while interest rates on loans remain prohibitively high now. We also saw at the community level, it is not necessarily about the bank, but it is about the knowledge of how to invest and how to save and how to get loans,” she said. “So, bringing in the private sector banks would also make a big difference in securing their finances. Again, when we talk about the prohibitive nature, it is the high loan interest rates on any regular bank. So, it is important for us to engage with the private sector and loan facilities to ensure that access to collateral levels, as well as interest rates, are not blocking women from accessing what they need to access.”
The UN official said the private sector companies are key in championing gender equality and enhancing social progress while fostering inclusive, resilient, and successful workplaces.
“The time for action is now, with just five years left to 2030, and unfortunately, we are not going to reach the goals, but we have to strive as much as we can and this is to shift from the commitment to implementation measurements and transparency into crucial engagement to make these things happen,” Serumaga stated.
For his part, Anthony Nyama, Business Support Manager at Alpha Bank, said they are working to promote women’s empowerment in the financial sector.
“There is a need for everyone, especially the financial institutions, to be involved in ensuring that women’s empowerment is at the center of our core activities because women are the future of the country,” he said. “From the data, we are still lagging behind, so we need to work very hard, and as a bank, we are here to ensure that we deliver on that.”