Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has said the government’s proposed Women’s Development Bank will play a critical role in extending financial support to women who are excluded from the traditional banking system, particularly those operating at the lower levels of the informal economy.
Speaking on The KSM Show on Friday, August 7, 2026, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said government remained committed to establishing the bank and was targeting a launch before the end of the year.
“We said we’ll do the Women’s Development Bank. We are dead serious about it,” she said, adding, “I’m hoping that before this year ends, we’d have launched it.”
The Vice President explained that the initiative was designed to support women who struggle to access conventional banking services due to challenges such as lack of collateral and formal financial records.
She questioned whether existing banking arrangements adequately serve women at the lowest levels of the economic ladder.
“You go to any bank in this country, and there’s a women’s desk. Why does that exist? Even when you go to the woman’s desk, which women normally go there?” she asked.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang cited women who sell goods by the roadside, hawk items such as boiled groundnuts, or rely on borrowed capital for their businesses as examples of people who are often left out of the formal financial system.
“Does it include this lady who went to get somebody’s doughnuts to hawk? Does she go to this bank? Where will this woman get her capital? How about her? She’s also a woman,” she said.
She said the proposed bank would focus on women who remain beyond the reach of existing financial institutions, explaining that commercial banks are constrained by lending requirements that make it difficult to serve such groups.
The Vice President said government policies must prioritise lifting people at the bottom of the economic ladder while continuing to support those who have already progressed.
She also reiterated that government’s broader priorities include economic recovery, national security and skills development.
“You must start with the things that affect everyone, like the economy, like security. These are fundamental. We must all feel safe. We must all get on with our lives. We must all get proper training to be able to contribute to that same economy,” she said.
“Our boss [President Mahama] is really, really working so hard to ensure that we are removing these obstacles from our paths.”