IWD 2023 UN Women Joint Panel Discussion

Addressing digital and financial inclusion is a collaboration, and a partnership.?Kush Bank was honoured to be asked to participate in the UNDP / UNWOMEN / UNFPA joint discussion to address pertinent issues affecting women and girls in South Sudan. #IWD2023 was themed around #PowerOn to give women and girls equal access to technology, end technology-related violence against women and girls, and close the digital gender gap.

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Participating in the panel discussion, Kush Bank’s Ag. CEO, Mr. Ryan O’Grady, noted that achieving these objectives is a process with many moving parts. For players in the financial sector, it starts with reaching out and collaborating, first to build trust, improve understanding, and then, aim to lower costs in order to support easier access. “As a national financial institution, Kush Bank has integrated this approach into every aspect of our portfolio because our focus is to serve our communities. People benefit, our clients benefit, and society benefits. We grow, not just a segment of the population, but as a nation through these investments,” he said.

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In South Sudan, the majority of households are women led, and, the majority of the population are youth, creating a unique demographic that requires impactful solutions that come from “outside the box” approaches.

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In consideration of the deep contrast between the needs of rural and urban woman, the bank has a women's window led by a women's finance specialist and a credit portfolio geared towards women, factoring in an approach that takes into account the different realities women face in accessing credit in the current national context, including the following fundamentals:

(i)?????????????????Education through digital literacy which facilitates better content delivery in traditional and modern settings.

(ii)????????????????Access to information through various digital platforms thereby enabling access to a world of opportunity and information.

(iii)??????????????Communication tools such as phones, computers, and reliable networks to share information and build support networks.

(iv)??????????????Empowerment, which is critical for success to provide women with the ability to make independent choices related to spending and investments, grow their businesses, access education, and access technology.

Kush Bank supports the above four pillars in substantive ways, including conducting outreach to promote financial and digital literacy and expanding its branch network. Additionally, the recently launched #NoFee2023* campaign that waives charges on deposits and withdrawals encourages participation in the formal financial sector. Kush Bank also supports centers like Scenius Hub and Koneta Hub, which use their convening power as a safe space to facilitate inclusion and training, as well as sponsorship of sports leagues, to drive team building and good citizenship, and remove youth from risk-oriented situations.?This combination of participation in sports, digital and business forums helps to build inclusion and access to learning opportunities, and looks beyond the borders of banking, and focuses on the building of communities.

From this informative discussion, the key takeaways for Kush Bank are:

·????????We cannot talk about inclusion without talking about access. We cannot talk about access without talking about affordability. We cannot talk about affordability without talking about reasonable credit costs.

·????????We can drive participation higher through a combination of easier/affordable financial access and more efforts related to education and inclusion. We all have roles to play – success in digital inclusion will ride on the success of financial inclusion. To impact real change, the financial and technology sectors must collaborate to lower costs by increasing external access, to affordable credit and creating stronger partnerships to support MNOs to deploy and establish structures for patient capital.

·????????There must be continued efforts to guide girls in high school, college, and universities across the country to chart their paths in the same industries, which should include expansion of our programs in internships and other entry-level priority positions for graduates.

·????????Including digital elements into the traditional lending processes to ensure access to your finances and data through mobile phones as part of the cost of borrowing requires support from many strategic partners to make it happen.

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Women in South Sudan can utilize digital technology to impact their participation in nation building, particularly those in rural communities. The key to achieving this is to focus on access to education, healthcare, personal and financial security. ??

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Ryan O’Grady closed by stating, “As a national bank, the obligation rests on our shoulders to be catalysts in promoting digital and financial inclusion, by building trust and confidence, and working to be in our communities, not just behind our desks.?True impact from the financial sector comes from being a part of the community, and understanding the needs and goals of those we serve and partner with.?That is our focus at Kush Bank, and a drive we will continue to push."