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Gender, Crystabel Chikayi
According to statistics, women account for nearly half of the world’s smallholder farmers in developing countries and they increasingly make up the majority of farmers but they also often do not have recognised rights to the land they till

A SIGNIFICANT number of women often have brilliant plans of growing businesses but their plans often remain pipe dreams as they have no financial muscle.

Many of them often turn to banks for loans but are rejected as they in many cases do not have collateral.

Some married women do not have control over properties co-owned with their husbands and hence cannot use them as collateral.

Yet assets under a woman’s control can give her greater bargaining power and often contribute more to important things like the welfare of the children and household matters.

African countries such as Zimbabwe have in place quite a number of women empowerment programmes but few women actually benefit from them.

In the past, culture dictated that a woman’s place was in the kitchen and to date; some women have not achieved full independence from patriarchy.

According to statistics, women account for nearly half of the world’s smallholder farmers in developing countries and they increasingly make up the majority of farmers but they also often do not have recognised rights to the land they till.

“I was forced to watch my dream crumble because I couldn’t access a bank loan. The bank told me point blank that I couldn’t get a loan because I didn’t have collateral,” said Mrs Anna Ndebele, who is in the decorating business.

She said her husband refused to give her the title deeds to their house to use as collateral because he felt it would be too much of a risk.

“My husband said he couldn’t risk the property being taken if the business failed. It’s hard being an African woman; the term “independent” sometimes simply doesn’t apply,” said Mrs Ndebele.

She said banks should consider relaxing loan terms in order to allow more women to access loans to grow their businesses.

Meanwhile, Mr Gibson Ncube, a loan shark said in some way, African culture has always been advantageous to men.

“In the past, the rape of women was seen as a personal offence to their husbands or fathers not the women themselves. If a girl was raped or impregnated, the man had to pay damages to the father of the impregnated girl,” said Mr Ncube.

It is sad how it seems women have fewer opportunities to shape their lives and make important decisions compared to men.

Mr Ncube said apart from culture being a tool of oppression, some men are not comfortable being in relationships with women that are more successful than they are.

“This may sound radical but I think that as men, we own women. It’s not fair, but in many cases, control creates comfort. Men like to think they’re on top but need that actual control to feel safe and secure. I do act like that myself and it’s out of love,” said Mr Ncube.

He said men who refuse their wives access to title deeds could be insecure that if the wife becomes independent, she might walk away.

It is important for women to own independent thriving businesses even if a man is to keep controlling other aspects of her life.

Gender activist and Matabeleland South proportional representation MP Ms Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said failure by women to access funds for their businesses has been a long standing issue.

She said the top 10 business people in the country are all men and that on its own means there is a problem with supporting female-owned businesses.

“Zimbabwean women are hard-working yet none of them are part of the top 10 business people in the country. We have to ask ourselves why it is like that.

That’s why we’re pushing towards the establishment of a woman’s bank. A bank that will be sensitive to women and function differently from mainstream banks,” said Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

She said mainstream banks have little faith in women as they are more concerned about their security.

Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga alluded to a Gwanda woman who had found a market for mopane worms (amacimbi) but the bank denied her a loan to start her business.

“In that case, I wonder what security the bank wants. The commodity to sell is there and will be there for the whole season, the market is there but they still denied the woman a loan,” she said.

“With the micro-lending organisations, there’s empirical evidence that women pay back better than men do. Banks just don’t think women can be trusted that’s why they deny them loans. Who has ever put it to thought that men take loans to buy cars and get more wives, yet women only use loan money for business.”

Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga said Parliament was working on developing a new procurement mechanism whereby for every tender, 30 percent will be set aside for women.

Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe president Dr Charity Jinya urged women to be bankable by ensuring that they formalise their operations so that they may access funding from banks.

She urged women to be bold, confident and courageous, avoiding despondency so as to be productive.

—@cchikayi