The solution for gender solution to finance women is for the AfDB to finance directly agribusinesses with innovative and passionate leadership in the agribusiness.

Funding through some intermediaries is a challenge as most of the women are illiterate in the rural communities and could not write a bankable proposal for funding. They may have very brilliant agribusiness ideas but because of lack of information of where to get cheap source of finance.

For this reason: 

• We are providing guaranteed market for cereal and legume crops at the local rural thereby creating capacity to these women in the rural.
• From our observation most women in the rural are hard working and do a lot of work and because of that we want these women to have access to long term loans in terms of solar water pumps for irrigation unlike using tedious way to do the irrigation.
• We are looking for finance to purchase tractor and implement so that these women could be assisted by preparing fields for them quickly unlike the tedious way of using hoes since they are the producers of the cereal and legume crops which we are to purchase from them at the local rural.
• This requires passionate leadership by the bank by funding directly where they could identify such leadership. Leaders who want to prosper together with smallholder farmers in the rural area.

From our experience we have noted that most of the funds through government systems do not reach the intended people. I have indicated this because of the experience of the funds from IFAD which part of it did not reach us through Ministry of Agriculture which might have been misappropriated by employees in the government Agencies. 

AfDB should have an organ which should be giving grants directly to agribusinesses and only make government systems as supervisors and not processors of the remittance of the funds to the agribusinesses..

This is my little contribution regarding funding women in the rural.
I look forward to hearing your comments.