February 29, 2024

The colorful markets of West Africa are often dominated by strong women. They control prices, carry the highest sales records in the market, control distribution, provide loans, work in some cases as a bank, they impact financial security to the community level and determine who can buy their goods. These women rule the market and are treated with deference. Thanks to their business acumen, they have amassed a great deal of wealth. These women are affectionately referred to as Mama Benz. The additional impact market women businesses have, is they also directly hire women to work for them. This enriches the strong bond that control aspects of the African Market Culture for successful businesses. The other market women look up to the Mama Benz Women, to this end, perhaps one day they too will attain such success and become a Mama Benz or a Cash Madame. The name Mama Benz or Cash Madame means financially successful powerful woman impacting her fellow women while serving her community and contributing to many livelihoods. In African countries, women are actively engaged in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing (clothing and textiles) and services. Opportunities from trade have brought more household resources under women’s control, which in turn has a positive effect on overall investment in the health and education of future generations. But women are also heavily employed in several sectors that continue to undergo adjustment and change due to trade liberalization, such as agriculture and textiles. More work is needed to understand whether there are differences in how women fare in trade adjustment. It is estimated that 70 per cent of informal cross-border trade in Africa is conducted by women traders. Being well positioned, women are the untapped resource to be an economic growth accelerator of Africa’s economy especially under the Women and Youth in Trade Protocol. Intra-African trade is currently estimated to contribute an income for about 43 per cent of the continent’s entire population but intra-African trade accounts for just over 10 per cent of total continental trade. Regional trade in East Africa alone accounted for only 8.3 per cent of total trade in 2017, less than the continental average, and unchanged over the past five years, according to report by the African Development Bank. UN Women works with regional bodies on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and AfCFTA Secretariat to address challenges that (young) women face when trading and to position them more strongly in the future of intra African trade. We at CMF Ventures USA-Ghana embark upon a mission in supporting women farmers and thrive to collaborate with women globally to make a change for Women, Planet and People. Share the Post: Related Posts Post-USAID World: A Path to Self-Reliance and Sustainable Growth April 8, 2025 The potential for Africa to feed itself and self-finance its needs in a post-USAID world is immense… Read More Agriculture Impacting Food Security Fighting for Gender Inequalities in Farming February 29, 2024 Agriculture is more likely than other sectors to provide diverse opportunities for empowering women… Read More Food Security Ghana & Broader Africa February 28, 2024 The global community is currently experiencing our third food price crisis in fifteen years… Read More

Agriculture is more likely than other sectors to provide diverse opportunities for empowering women. However, women farmers are held back by barriers that prevent them from feeding their families and reinvesting in their livelihoods. Women face restrictions related to their gender while also experiencing the financial struggles shared by all small-scale farmers. Women do not receive the same support as men farmers do. They have less access to land, loans, and machinery. Women are heavily involved in domestic activities including caring, cooking and cleaning, which remain hidden economically. Women are disproportionately affected by climate change and face greater exposure to climate risks due to the same barriers that reduce their productivity. About 80 percent of the world’s food is produced by small-scale farming. Women make up on average 43 percent of this agricultural labor in developing countries. They are the majority in some countries. Growth in small-scale agriculture is two to four times more effective at reducing hunger and poverty than any other sector, and women farmers are playing a significant role. They produce a huge amount of food for their families and surrounding communities. Yet, little action has been taken to ensure that they have the resources they need to improve their livelihoods, tackle food insecurity, and build their communities’ resilience to climate change. The Private Sector, Institutions, People, and Governments must break down the barriers that are holding back women farmers and preventing them from accessing critical farming inputs. They must ensure women have secure land rights and provide women with vital funding and support for farming and adapting to climate change. Such support would protect their rights and boost their productivity. It would unleash the potential of hundreds of millions of women farmers to effectively reduce poverty and hunger. Women are changing the face of agriculture, adapting, and innovating to tackle the challenges of climate change, and feeding the continent’s growing population. African women are actors along the entire agricultural value chain, as farmers, livestock breeders, food processors, traders, farm workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. Share the Post: Related Posts Post-USAID World: A Path to Self-Reliance and Sustainable Growth April 8, 2025 The potential for Africa to feed itself and self-finance its needs in a post-USAID world is immense… Read More African Market Woman – Mama Benz February 29, 2024 The colorful markets of West Africa are often dominated by strong women. They control prices, carry… Read More Food Security Ghana & Broader Africa February 28, 2024 The global community is currently experiencing our third food price crisis in fifteen years… Read More