BACKGROUND
- The Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender & Community Development was mandated by the Government of Zimbabwe under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET), to strengthen and/or establish mechanisms for women to effectively participate and benefit from various empowerment programmes.
- The idea of a Women’s Bank was first put forward in 1982 by the Ministry of Community Development and Women’s Affairs, as a means by which rural women could get access to credit facilities.
- Women constitute 52 % of the population, are believed to work ten times more than men and produce more than half of the country’s food, yet they earn only 10% of the country’s income.
- The meetings recommended study visits to countries that have established similar banks and with the support from UNDP, study visits were conducted in Tanzania, India and Bangladesh, to learn best practices in establishing a Women’s Bank, and how successful these models have been.
- To ensure that the Women’s Bank becomes a reality and to make sure that the intended mission and vision of financial inclusion of the un-banked and under-banked woman is realised, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development registered a private company on 10 January 2017, company registration # 134/2017 under the name “Zimbabwe Women’s Bank (Private) Limited.”
VISION
The leading bank for women’s empowerment solutions.
MISSION
To empower all women economically and socially.
VALUES
- Teamwork – Working together with shared objectives and values.
- Empowering – Enabling the customer to realize their dream or vision.
- Accessible – Simple, convenient, customer focused and engaged.
- Integrity – Doing what is right at all times.
- Responsive – Understanding and meeting the stakeholder’s needs as if they were our own.
