The new branch aims to facilitate access to financing for businesses run by women or whose services are oriented towards women.
Ecobank has just innovated in the city of Douala with an agency purely designed for women. The agency located in the heart of Bonanjo, the administrative district of the city, was inaugurated on March 6, 2024 during a ceremony chaired by Professor Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa, Minister for the Promotion of Women and the Family.
The opening of this branch according to Ecobank management aligns with the Group’s strategy to reduce the gender financing gap by helping women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses grow. “ The opening of the first bank branch in Cameroon dedicated to women is the result of growing interest in Ecobank’s Ellevate program. This also strengthens our positioning and determination to be the bank of choice for women’s businesses. », explained Gwendoline Abunaw, ADG Ecobank Cameroon. The Ellevate program launched by the group a few years ago offers a set of financial and non-financial solutions to empower and support the growth of businesses owned by women, or targeting women. Ellevate customers benefit from smarter cash management solutions, favorable lending rates and value-added services such as business and leadership training and networking opportunities. The said program was specifically designed to help bridge the funding gap for women entrepreneurs.
The new agency is welcomed by women entrepreneurs in the economic capital. “Ecobank is our daily partner. Investing through women, Ecobank had already anticipated. Because we have benefited from several properties from Ecobank. In particular machines for making soap. I manage 924 widows on a daily basis within my association and we are supported by Ecobank and so for us it is continuity. », rejoices Thècle Micheline Aurelie Nyobe Maah, CEO of Gic Herficam.
Reactions
Professor Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa, Minister for the Promotion of Women and the Family
“This is not a bank for upper class women”
“Women do not have access to credit in traditional banks. Opening a bank and providing this branch which takes into account the specificity of Cameroonian women constitutes a great relief which will allow the target population to have access to financing in proportion to their level. This bank is inclusive. We didn’t talk about a bank for upper class women. It concerns the most vulnerable layer, it is a great relief which also notes the importance of the public-private partnership. It is a private initiative that meets the needs of the target population who are dependent on our family. We are very honored for this idea that the ADG had to make this agency available to women. And, we hope that women will really benefit from it.”
Gwendoline Abunaw, ADG Ecobank
« We want to encourage women to enter the financial ecosystem”
“Four years ago, our Ecobank group decided to launch a program to encourage women to enter the financial ecosystem. Because the development of our countries depends on the inclusion of all stakeholders to enable us to achieve sustainable objectives for the year 2023. So it is with this background that the group decided, and I myself took the initiative to open this first agency dedicated to women to encourage women to come and open accounts. Because to begin this journey in the financial ecosystem it starts with access to a bank account. You need to have the history of your activity to understand how to manage a business, you need to have access to financing to understand the activity. So, we think that with the opening of this agency, it will boost this initiative launched by the group 4 years ago. And we truly believe that it will help develop Cameroon’s economy. »
Rebecca Enonchong, entrepreneur
“I am happy to see that the bank has recognized the difficulties of women”
“I have been an Ecobank customer for over 20 years, and I am really happy to see that the bank has recognized the difficulties that women have in accessing the financial system. She created this innovation and I’m really proud to be here today to celebrate this moment. I think it’s just a start, we’re starting in Cameroon and it will be replicated across the continent. I am a member of the jury for an international competition called the African Banking Awards, and every year the banks try to show everything they do for women. These are small examples, I think it is such an important, such concrete example of the contribution that a bank can make for women. I think it will change a lot of things. “.
