Bank for women only

TRINIDAD and Tobago is to get its first ever women’s bank. So resolved the Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women yesterday at its Seventh Biennial Conference at Dretchi, Wrightson Road. The bank is tentatively named “The Women’s Responsive Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.” It will facilitate savings, loans and investments by women, especially those who do not qualify for loans by the established banking system. The bank is to be modelled on the Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN) whose workings were explained to the conference by its founder Chief Bisi Ogunleye. She founded COWAN in 1982 with six cooperatives of 150 members, and it has since grown to involve 1,400 groups and 31,000 members.

Recalling her experiences in Nigeria, she advised: “If we agreed to start with 10,000 women to buy a share of 100 Naira each we already have One Million” (US$1 equals 144 Naira). The TT bank, like COWAN, will give loans at low-interest to people who are excluded from existing banks by factors such as a lack of collateral. Chief Bisi said banks like COWAN can aid women economic empowerment by breaking the cycle of dependency, and providing women money to initiate their own small businesses and other projects.  The TT bank will facilitate savings, loans and investments of individuals, and groups and will offer loans similar to COWAN as the poorest of the poor loan.

It will also encourage savings by children. Meanwhile the Network is trying to raise initial funds of US$150,000 by next February, a sum they hoped will be matched by grants from the Government and foreign agencies. Yesterday’s conference initiated steps to register the bank as a company, and received pledges towards the initial fund of US$150,000. Conference participants debated the problems faced in accessing loans from the traditional banking system, and lamented the lack of guidance offered to clients of Government-run grant schemes. The bank will also teach people how to manage money, and generally try to help people break any cycle of poverty they may be in. The Network claims to be comprised of 121women’s groups.