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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 21 November 2019
Iconic singer hopes to close financing gap for African women

BY CARA ANNA who need it the most,” make money but aren’t
Associated Press said Vanessa Moungar, given the chance to try.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — the African Development She recalled women in
The insect-eaten money Bank’s Chadian-French Ghana who resorted
fluttered in pieces to the director of gender, wom- to digging a hole in the
floor. For global music star en and civil society. ground to stash their earn-
Angelique Kidjo, that im- She was not ready to an- ings because they didn’t
age of her grandmother nounce further pledges have bank accounts. And
having to use a closet as but said talks are continu- during a visit to Benin last
a bank is driving her de- ing with potential donor month, one woman told
sire to see African women countries, including Afri- her that to obtain a loan
leap the many obstacles can ones. With the conti- of 5,000 CFA ($8) she had
to obtaining credit — and nent’s 1.2 billion popula- to show a property deed
respect. tion expected to double and hand over 100,000
The Benin-born singer, one In this Thursday, April 21, 2016 file photo, singer and UNICEF by 2050, the pressure for CFA as collateral.
of Africa’s iconic artists Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo poses at the opening growth is huge. Such experiences have
and a collaborator with of the new photography exhibit “REFUGEE” at The Annenberg “Look, women are one of helped to inspire another
Philip Glass and others, is Space for Photography, in Los Angeles. the most powerful forces new program, the $100
the voice of a new project Associated Press of nature on this conti- million U.S.-run Women’s
aimed in part at rewriting ties as opposed to about even though one in four nent,” Moungar said. “If Global Development and
laws across the continent 40% for men, it’s a disaster, starts or manages a busi- they can be economically Prosperity Initiative fund
that prevent millions of Kidjo said. “We’re taking ness, the highest percent- empowered, transforma- with projects in 22 coun-
women from becoming a up reducing the poverty age in the world, the bank tion will be fast-tracked tries in Africa and else-
more powerful economic rate in Africa to the small- says. like we’ve never seen.” where. They include Mo-
force. est number ever. That’s In some African coun- Launching along with rocco, where women are
In an interview with The my passion. That’s why I’m tries, women can’t open the new financing proj- benefiting from new laws
Associated Press, Kidjo de- here.” a bank account without ect is an index to assess that allow them to own
scribed what she has seen She will help the African their husband or father, how commercial banks land. The Africa-focused
over decades of travel in Development Bank next or inheritance laws leave are performing. “When AFAWA, with vocal back-
Africa during which wom- week launch AFAWA, or them with little or nothing. they come to us for more ing from French Presi-
en in vibrant marketplac- Affirmative Finance Ac- That means no collateral. (loans) we’ll say, ‘What dent Emmanuel Macron,
es wished they had the tion for Women in Africa. But reforms are catching have you done for wom- will launch this month in
means to do more. Already the G-7 group on. In the World Bank’s lat- en?’” Moungar said. Rwanda at the Global
“Why do banks give more of the world’s major de- est Women, Business and The project is also turning Gender Summit, which
loans to men versus wom- mocracies has committed Law report in 2018, 32% accountability on itself, gathers multilateral de-
en? That’s the question I $250 million, and the bank of reforms tracked in sub- with Kidjo and other am- velopment banks from
have,” she said. “Millions is providing $1 billion for Saharan African countries bassadors meant to speak around the world.
of women entrepreneurs the project that will be de- addressed equal treat- up if they think the project When that East African
in Africa, they lack loans ployed across all 54 coun- ment for women and isn’t moving quickly or ef- nation changed its laws
versus the men. Once tries. men in accessing credit fectively enough. to give women access
again, we come back to The goal is to raise $5 bil- and financial services. An- True, Kidjo said. “I’m not to land, their financial in-
this patriarchy. And we lion for efforts that include gola, Congo and Zambia a very patient person. clusion jumped from 36%
know men pay less back helping to guarantee joined others in prohibiting Those women, they don’t to 63% in just four years,
than women.” loans, training women gender-based credit dis- have time to waste. Their Moungar said. “Can you
Every time credit is refused on financial matters and crimination, it said. livelihood is in danger. I’m imagine?” she said. “I want
to African women, who eliminating laws and regu- With the new fund for fi- gonna be very strict.” all the women out there to
invest some 90% of what lations that make access- nancing African women Women across Africa know that’s what’s really
they earn in educating ing credit more difficult. “we will be able to go have told her they don’t driving us and our hearts.
their children and support- African women face a as low as a few hundred want charity, the singer We are working for them
ing families and communi- $42 billion financing gap dollars’ loan ... for people said. They know how to and nothing else.”q

Baldacci’s new thriller spooks and horrifies

By WAKA TSUNODA murder mystery that spooks ing her and running off with can shed any new light on
Associated Press and horrifies. her twin sister Mercy. it. Meanwhile, a woman’s
“A Minute to Midnight: an The drama begins as FBI Ordered to take a vacation corpse in a wedding veil
Atlee Pine Thriller,” Grand agent Atlee Pine comes for having used excessive turns up, followed by an-
Central Publishing, by Da- upon a registered sex of- force in the incident, Pine other in a tuxedo and yet
vid Baldacci fender trying to abduct a returns to her hometown in another in an American
David Baldacci made his little girl. She overpowers Georgia and attempts to Civil War costume.
literary debut in 1996 with the man and pulls the girl solve the crime that hap- Pine manages to solve
a political thriller, “Abso- to safety, but she doesn’t pened nearly 30 years ago. these new cases and even
lute Power.” He has since stop there. With the help of her as- discovers some surprising
written novels with blinding She beats him until he is sistant, Pine interviews her secrets about her parents,
speed, many of them ac- unconscious. In her mind, former neighbors, fam- but the answer to her old
tion thrillers featuring men the man has become con- ily friends and a man who case still evades her. For
with military backgrounds. fused with the still unidenti- now lives in her childhood Atlee Pine fans, this is good This cover image released
With his latest, “A Minute fied individual who came home. news because it means by Grand Central Publishing
shows "A Minute to Midnight,"
to Midnight,” the author into her bedroom when she Many remember the hor- Baldacci has another thrill- by David Baldacci.
changes gears and offers a was 6 years old, almost kill- rific incident, but no one er about her in the oven.q Associated Press