The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has awarded a grant of $320,535 to the West African Monetary Agency. Funds from the Facility for Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa (AFDI), a blended finance mechanism, supported by the AfDB Group, aims to mainstream gender into digital financial operations in the Economic Community of Western States. West Africa (ECOWAS).

The AfDB has allocated a grant of $320,535 to the West African Monetary Agency to support gender mainstreaming in basic regulatory frameworks governing digital financial services (DFS) in ECOWAS.

The grant will be used to carry out an analysis of the gender gaps that feature in several strategies of the West African Monetary Agency (WAMA), including those relating to financial inclusion, data analysis disaggregated by gender, digital payment services and infrastructure, and digital identity.

The project will be implemented over three years and will potentially affect up to 350 million people in the fifteen member countries of ECOWAS: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

“With a secretariat representing the fifteen central banks of ECOWAS, WAMA plays a central role in the consolidation and implementation of strategic objectives concerning financial inclusion. AFDI and the WAMA project team will work closely with other ecosystem actors in the region to ensure harmonization of efforts to create maximum impact,” said Sheila Okiro, Coordinator of AFDI.

The project aims to increase women's participation in digital financial market operations to 35% in the region, which has a greater gender disparity than other parts of the continent.