Women account for 49 per cent of Equity Bank Rwanda’s total customers estimated at 1.2 million, and 40 per cent of credit customers including business and individual loan categories, according to data from the Bank.

To increase the share of women in the Bank's portfolio, mainly the business component, it developed products that are intended to ease their access to loans and friendly repayment means, grow their financial literacy as well as business success.

They include insurance covers whereby women pay 1.5 per cent -- once off -- of the loan they are granted by the Bank. This premium covers maternity leave, credit life, and hospital cash, all intended to ease women's loan repayments during these challenging periods.

In an interview with The New Times, the Head of Strategy, Investment and Social Impact at Equity Bank, Dianah Mukundwa, talked about those women-focused products and how the Bank is walking the talk in regard to women's financial inclusion and economic empowerment.

Here are excerpts:

What is Equity Bank's approach to women banking and how does it differ from other banks'?

I think our biggest uniqueness compared to other banks, I will begin by saying it's mainly on our social and economic twin-engined approach.

Social side is mainly training and engaging partners to de-risk women['s their businesses] through funding, such that they are able to borrow at affordable prices.

For instance, since the year 2023 began, we have trained close to 2,000 women on financial literacy, entrepreneurship education, and psychosocial support, saving for investment, writing business plans, and loan management.

The commercial side of it is how we come up and create innovative products to support our MSME women to be able to get products that support them.

Unlike other banks, Equity Bank has a fully-fledged unit for women banking, which is only thinking about women, following women for business, engaging women, training women, among other interventions, such that it has a target to bank women and financially include them, which makes us also think of many initiatives, and get partners because there is a unit that is fully focused on women.

How does Equity Bank ensure that its women banking products and services are accessible to women from diverse backgrounds and socio-economic groups?

The key identified challenges that hinder women's access to credit include lack of collateral, limited availability of financial products and services meant and tailored for women, as well as persistence of negative mindsets and beliefs that hinder women's access [to finance].

So, the primary objectives of our products are mainly to create good quality risk assets (loans) for our women. We want to provide value for our women customers, help financial inclusion for these women, increase the customer base of women because we want to be a bank that looks at customers equally.

And then, part of what we are doing is our Igire na Equity Products. They are categorised differently [based on size and business growth stage]. We have Zamuka --- meant to support micro businesses to grow -- where the loan amount ranges from Rwf50,000 to Rwf1 million.

We go to Terimbere, it's like a ladder. You were here borrowing Rwf50,000 to Rwf1 million (under Zamuka), now you have gone to the next ladder, which is from Rwf1 million to Rwf3 million, in groups. You have paid off the loan and you have given the Bank comfort that you are a good customer, so you move to the other level.

The third level of our women's banking products is called Tinyuka. This is a product for individuals at micro level, who have the capacity to run businesses on their own, and the loan allowed for this category is also between Rwf1 million and Rwf3 million for a maximum period of 24 months.

After this you go to Iyubake, which ranges from Rwf4 million to Rwf20 million, which is a product for MSMEs... so the Bank is giving you more trust.

And then comes Icyizere, which is a product for medium and large enterprises with a loan limit of between Rwf20 million and Rwf70 million, and Sugira, which is also a product for medium and large enterprises with a loan allocation of Rwf70 million and above.

Talking about insurance covers, including maternity leave, how do they work and benefit women?

In February, we partnered with Sanlam Life Insurance on insurance covers, and they gave us a very minimal rate of 1.5 per cent, once off deduction, depending on the loan in question, as insurance premium. This includes maternity leave, credit life and hospital cash covers -- during the loan tenure. We negotiated this particularly for women.

These business women, the micro and large SMEs, when they go to give birth, some even close their shops because they do not trust the people, some entrust to people the responsibility to sell for them, but they steal from them.

And, you find that instead of spending at least two months taking care of their babies including breastfeeding them, and having a rest, the woman is back to the small stand in the market with a two-weeks baby because she needs to generate income, she needs to feed her kids.

So, the Bank said if the institutions can do that, why don't you contribute 1.5 per cent on insurance, and then when you give birth and you are on maternity leave while servicing the loan, you will have a benefit of two month-loan payoff installments from the insurance company.

You will be strong, enjoy your baby, and know you don't have stress for the bank installments because insurance has covered it. So this is a uniqueness we have started that no other bank has had in the country.

Our second insurance cover is called credit life. This will cover the borrower on the payment of outstanding loan balance on the date of happening of the insured event, excluding incurred arrears of the loan.

Then, the last one is called hospital cash cover. You are a businessperson, but you unfortunately become ill, and you have taken more than 15 days in a hospital -- admitted. If you take more than 15 days, the insurer will still cover for you 50 per cent of the monthly loan installments.

It is a new activity. But, over 400 women have subscribed to the insurance products including maternity leave, credit life, and hospital cash cover. Women have appreciated this product.

March was a month dedicated to women in line with the celebration of the International Women's Day. What initiatives did Equity Bank highlight through the month?

Among other activities during the women's month, we came up with the Shikama na Equity initiative for teen mothers, which we launched in March, but we started it off with a training of 200 teen mothers in Nyagatare.

Some of them even asked if they could start getting loans... Teen mothers’ businesses are mainly micro. They will not be able to borrow at 18 per cent or 17 per cent interest rates, like a businesswoman who is a large SME.

We are still negotiating with partners so that we lend to them at lower rates.

We also engaged stakeholders that we think will be crucial in this, like UN Women, and other institutions including private, public and NGOs, looking for partners to scale up the benefits. This is in line with our social initiatives.

The other activity is that we launched a women forum. The women forum is going to be an engagement that is going to happen every year. It's going to be an annual forum for women.

At that forum, we are going to be having peer to peer engagements; women who have made it in business are going to be having talks to the young women on how to be successful in business.

Looking to the future, how does Equity Bank plan to continue supporting the financial empowerment of women?

Looking to the future, first of all, we want to celebrate our female entrepreneurs who have defied odds and are maturing business to date. The Bank appreciates them. And the Bank also commits to walk with them through the journey of their transformation in business, both socially and economically.

Economically, we will keep seeing, based on the customer, what their needs are, and also do tailored products to suit their needs. So, everyday we are on creation, we are innovating, we are not sleeping, we are changing with the changes in the dynamics of the economy. We are thinking of them, we are looking at what can serve them better.

Of course we want to partner with as many partners as we are able to de-risk these women, because women have different categories; the more you de-risk them, the more they tend to come to the bank to borrow because they feel the interest rates are within their capabilities of repayment.