Source: Daily Trust
Wife of former South Africa's former President, Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, has called on African financial institutions to support women involved in agriculture.

Machel said more than 50 percent of African women were involved in agriculture activities could do well if they were financially empowered.

She said such support would positively affect their family and the world.

Speaking while on a visit to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural development Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, she said women in Africa lack access to financial support to improve their agricultural activities.

"Women constitute over 50 percent of the total population of farmers in Africa, but the most unfortunate of it all is that they don't have access to big entrepreneurs.

Just few of them have access even to micro finance or soft loan as the case may be. Once a woman is empowered, the family will benefit immensely, and the whole world too."

She laments that only a few women have benefited from government's interventions in the agriculture sector despite efforts made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) towards improvement of agriculture in the Nigeria.

According to her, part of the reason why she visited Nigeria is to advocate more inclusion of women as beneficiaries of agriculture support from financial institutions in the Africa and from their home governments.

"I'm here to challenge the banking industry in Nigeria not to leave women just at the micro and junior level but that they should ensure they get both to the middle and the top. Nigerian women are very hard working and one of the most important things they need for the upliftment of their agricultural business is access to huge loan.

"We also want Nigeria to host the 2nd Summit on Women Empowerment, which is scheduled to take place between 13th and 14th of July, 2012, being one of the great African countries with agricultural potentials. This will be a platform where we will strategize and recognize that if women complement one another, the result will be great."

Responding, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina Akinwumi promised to ensure that women have access to macro loan and better access to finance.