: Angelique Kidjo, Mariana Mazzucato and Paypal’s Dan Schulman on Solutions That Will Drive Real Change #WorldNEWS Usually this week in January, global leaders, policymakers and heads of business would

Angelique Kidjo, Mariana Mazzucato and Paypal’s Dan Schulman on Solutions That Will Drive Real Change #WorldNEWS
Usually this week in January, global leaders, policymakers and heads of business would be heading to the Swiss Alps to share ideas on how to solve the world’s great challenges.
Sadly, the major challenge facing the world — the COVID-19 pandemic — has also prevented delegates from assembling at the World Economic Forum as they usually would. However, WEF is instead forging ahead with a virtual summit, the Davos Agenda, to offer a platform for leaders in a range of fields to convene, debate, and learn from one another.
TIME’s editors are participating in a number of events, including a panel on stakeholder capitalism hosted by TIME editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal. Joining him are World Economic Forum co-founder and chair Dr Klaus Schwab, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Beninese musician and activist Angelique Kidjo, economist Mariana Mazzucato, and PayPal’s chief executive Dan Schulman

Ahead of the panel, we asked three of the delegates to share their proposed solutions for a major problem facing society:
Angelique Kidjo: Close the financial gender gap in Africa
It’s 2021, and economies all around the world are suffering following a global pandemic that has disrupted them to their core. And while citizens and governments are trying to find financial short-term band-aid solutions to stop the bleeding, we know we will feel the repercussions of this for a while.
But the truth is, there are some who have always been left out of the national and global economies: African women. On a continent that is a vibrant source of creative and innovative ideas, half of the population has little to no chance of actually being able to participate in building or rebuilding economies.
African SMEs have restricted access to bank loans (financing gap is estimated to be of 5bn). And on top of that, African women continue to be excluded from financial services, because of cultural, social, and political norms. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 37 percent of women have a bank account, compared with 48 percent of men, a gap that has only widened over the past several years.
African financial institutions need to learn how to listen, trust, and support African women. The potential is there, and it is their right to be active participants in an economy that believes in them, respects them, and treats them fairly. Ghana has the third highest rate of women-owned businesses in the world, at 36. 5%. We have success stories that can inspire us to lift others up too.
We need to close the gender gap in African markets and economies, and we need to do it now. Financial institutions, entrepreneurs, and governments need to step it up to ensure that tomorrow’s economies don’t reproduce today’s mistakes.