Programme Directors: Adv Mikateko
Joyce Maluleke: Director-General: Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, and
Mr Mosweu Paul Mogotlhe: Director-General: Office of the Premier, North West Province
Honourable Premier of North West Province: Mr Lazarus Mokgosi
Traditional and Religious Leaders Present
Executive Leadership of the Northwest Province
Distinguished Representatives of the G20 Troika
Distinguished delegates of the G20 Member States, Invited Guest Countries, and International Organisations and Partners
Heads of Delegation
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good Morning!
My name is Sindisiwe Chikunga, and I serve as the Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. This morning, on behalf of our Government and our
President, His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, I have the honour of extending very warm and fraternal greetings to all our guests from far and near to this G20 Conference on Global
Innovative Approaches and Best Practices on Financial Inclusion as a catalyst for Women’s Economic Empowerment.
We are delighted to welcome all delegates to the beautiful North West Province, and are eager to share with you our country’s warm atmosphere, our people’s exceptional hospitality, and our rich history of struggle and dedication to the realization of freedom, equality, solidarity, and sustainability for all.
Our conference is taking place against the backdrop of our collective aspirations as reflected in critical global and regional frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the African Union Agenda 2063, South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, our 2025 G20 Presidency Priorities, as well as Key Priority 2 of the Working Group on the Empowerment of Women (EWWG), i.e., (Promoting Financial Inclusion of and for Women). All of these key documents foreground financial inclusion as a catalyst for women’s economic empowerment.
Dear Delegates,
The significance of this conference cannot be overstated. Three decades have passed since the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action established a vision for women’s economic empowerment. At that historic gathering in 1995, 189 governments acknowledged for the first time that women’s economic participation was essential for global development and the future of humanity, with a third of the framework’s recommendations addressing economic issues.
Our decision to elevate and shine the spotlight on financial inclusion as a priority theme during our chairship, not only seeks to build on the remarkable legacies of Brazil and India, but also to reaffirm the ongoing legacy of the women who came before us and their unrelenting emphasis on the need to achieve women’s economic and financial autonomy as a necessary condition for lasting gender equality.
Three decades ago, the women who came before us correctly observed that the considerable gender disparities in who gets to exert power over economic structures in societies were foundational to persisting gender inequalities. They saw then what persists to this day – that in most parts of the world, women are virtually absent from structures where economic decisions are made and economic power is exercised, this includes structures where financial, monetary, commercial and other economic policies are formulated. Noting this trend, the women correctly concluded, for it to be inclusive, development, including decisions on how the proceeds of economic activities are to be distributed, had to be women led. The conditions that warranted advocacy for women-led
development persist to this day.
Despite decades of advocacy work, the gendered socioeconomic gap remains both untenable and unsustainable. Women and girls continue to shoulder the global burden of poverty, which in turn deprives them of accessing vital health services, education, and socioeconomic opportunities throughout their lives. As a result, women continue to be underrepresented in economic decision-making positions, they have limited access to credit and capital, they face discrimination in employment, they earn less, shoulder disproportionate unpaid care responsibilities, and lag behind in digital financial access.
Even in areas where women’s labour force participation has peaked, their work often takes the form of self-employment in the informal sector with no security and limited opportunities for growth. Here on the continent, parts of the Global South and beyond, the majority of women are either unemployed, underemployed, or mostly vulnerably employed.
The women who pursue entrepreneurship are often reduced to the informal sector with limited access to capital and other formal financial services. They are hindered by the lack of essential skills to effectively manage and sustain businesses, and take advantage of available financial services, products, and other existing business opportunities. Only a handful of financial institutions understand the unique needs of women enough to provide them with relevant products and services that adequately respond to these needs.
As we speak, only 15% of the SDGs are on track to be achieved by 2030, and about 37% of these targets have shown no progress or, even worse, have regressed below the 2015 baseline. Sustainable Development Goal 5, which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, is one of those goals that will not be met by 2030. Alongside escalating geopolitical tensions, ongoing debt pressures carry the potential to push millions more women into extreme poverty, particularly as debt servicing costs continue to divert resources away from education, health, and other public goods.
More recently, we gathered in New York for the annual Commission on the Status of Women to commemorate 30 years since Beijing. The general feeling was that of hope and fear, fear that the struggle for gender equality is facing a significant pushback from powerful corners. This fear was aptly captured by the UN Secretary-General during his moving opening remarks. He cautioned that:
“Three decades on, the Beijing promise feels more distant than we might ever have imagined. Women’s rights are under siege. The poison of patriarchy is back – and it is back with a vengeance: Slamming the brakes on action; tearing-up progress; and mutating into new and dangerous forms. But there is an antidote. That antidote is action. Now is the time for those of us who care about equality for women and girls to stand up and to speak out. Now is the time for the world to accelerate progress and deliver on the promise of Beijing.”
While acknowledging progress in reducing maternal mortality and expanding legal protections for women, the Secretary-General lamented the persistence of economic inequality and
discrimination. He further singled out the use of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in ways that not only amplify gendered abuse, but further widen socio-economic
disparities between women and men.
WHY PRIORITIZE FINANCIAL INCLUSION? KEY CONSIDERATIONS
Program Director
In this conference, we have therefore foregrounded the theme of financial inclusion as a pillar of a century old clarion call, a call that, for generations, has carried with it a timeless message
that says:
Placing the levers of economic power and control over the wealth producing resources of any nation in the hands of women is neither a favour nor an act of charity— instead it should form part of our collective resolve to redress the past by ensuring that women receive equitable returns for their contributions to the daily functioning of this country, this continent, and the world.
The evidence is clear and compelling: when women have equal access to financial resources, economies grow and humanity thrives. When women participate in economic governance, policies become more responsive to diverse needs and more effective overall. Studies have consistently shown that increasing women’s financial inclusion raises GDP, reduces poverty, and enhances business performance.
We know, for example, from extensive UN data and reports that women spend a larger portion of their income on their families compared to men, often investing around 90% of their earnings back into their households, while men invest around 30-40%. It therefore goes without saying that allowing a patriarchal consolidation of economic power away from women, is antithetical and, frankly, contradictory to our global pursuit for a just, humane and collectively prosperous society.
Dear Delegates,
We have foregrounded the theme of financial inclusion because, despite this knowledge and the evidence before us , as we gather as delegates to this conference, for women and girls, the world outside is still a far cry from the one envisioned in Beijing 1995. As we gather to address their current fate and imagine their future economic prospects, millions of women worldwide still face a growing list of systemic barriers. The world over, for the majority of women out there, progress towards financial inclusion has been far from ideal and inadequate at best.
Moreover, with the G20 taking place for the first time on the African continent, our theme of financial inclusion also draws direct inspiration from the African Union Agenda 2063 and the legacy of South Africa’s chairship of the African Union, which coincided with the Decade of African Women. During our Chairship of the AU, our President, His Excellency President Ramaphosa stood out for championing Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion at the forefront of his programme of action.
MOVING FORWARD: KEY AREAS OF CONSIDERATION
Program Director, I wish to highlight five broad pillars of financial inclusion that I believe require our urgent attention:
Firstly, at the level of economic decision-making and policy leadership, we must implement gender-responsive budgeting across all government departments, establish meaningful quotas
for women in financial institutions and regulatory bodies, and create specialized economic advisory councils that amplify women’s voices in all areas where the direction of our economies
is determined.
Secondly, to ensure meaningful access to financial resources and capital formation, progressive fiscal reforms and an overhaul of the global financial architecture are long overdue. According to the World Economic Forum, women entrepreneurs face a global financing gap estimated at $1.7 trillion. Research shows that traditional banking systems are failing women through collateral requirements that overlook women’s limited property ownership, financial products that ignore women’s business patterns, and gender bias in lending decisions. Without access to capital, women’s entrepreneurial potential remains severely constrained. Addressing this domain requires specialized women’s banking initiatives, scaled-up credit programs with clear pathways to formal banking, gender-responsive investment funds, and reforms to our property laws.
Thirdly, this conference must address the issue of women’s access to land and related productive assets as key pillars of financial inclusion and the foundation of wealth creation. We
contend that the economic and financial inclusion of women cannot be achieved alongside landlessness and unjust patterns of property ownership. We therefore hope that this conference
will also serve as a foundational platform for addressing the enduring social, legal, and customary barriers that continue to hinder women’s ownership of land, capital, credit, technology,
and other means of production.
Fourth, we should also emerge from this conference having exchanged ideas on how to remove trade barriers that disproportionately affect women and ensure fair representation in cross-border trade policies. For example, how do we position women at the forefront of beneficiating the projected surge in minerals critical to energy transitions and their related value chains? Our region, Southern Africa, is central to the global energy transitions. From electric vehicles to solar panels and future digital innovations, the shift to clean energy is set to heighten demand for these minerals. We expect scholars and practitioners alike to present concrete measures to ensure that women-owned businesses are at the forefront of value addition across these industries. We need
tangible ideas and actionable strategies—for example, on how we can leverage the AfCFTA to attract both public and private investment into domestic processing, beneficiation, and commercialisation capabilities—so we can move beyond the setbacks of economies dependent on basic extraction.
Lastly, another domain that requires our urgent attention is leveraging preferential public procurement at various levels of government to achieve sustainable financial inclusion outcomes. This should include setting mandatory quotas for contracts awarded to women-owned businesses, with specific attention to marginalized women entrepreneurs. In South Africa we have put the quota at 40% for women owned businesses.
As recently as July 2024 , President Ramaphosa signed into law the Public Procurement Act—legislation that will regulate public procurement, including preferential procurement, by all organs of state. We welcome the President’s decisive intervention in this regard.
This Public Procurement Act represents a comprehensive overhaul of South Africa’s procurement landscape. It consolidates existing laws, strengthens governance through a central Public Procurement Office, promotes socio-economic transformation through a structured preferential procurement framework, enhances transparency and combats corruption through measures such as mandatory disclosure and the use of technology, and provides a dedicated dispute resolution mechanism.
For these efforts to succeed, it is essential to invest in modernising the capacity of women-owned businesses so that they can produce, supply, and distribute high-quality goods and services—equipped with the latest manufacturing technologies and production tools.
We must also develop gender-responsive fintech solutions and digital banking platforms that address literacy barriers, incorporating design features tailored to the needs of women in rural and farming communities. Our department is currently working with the prudential authorities to introduce a cooperative bank in order to address gaps in the system that continue to leave women behind.
Finally, we must be able to track progress in real time in order to intervene when necessary. To this end, during our 2025 Women’s Economic Assembly, we launched the Presidential Index for Gender-Inclusive Supply Chains. This data-driven tool is designed to track, measure, and evaluate procurement transformation across industries, providing a clear mechanism for assessing real impact and ensuring that women-owned businesses are fully integrated into South Africa’s economic
landscape.
CONCLUSION
Programme Directors,
As we deliberate in the coming days, let us be reminded of the words of the UN Secretary-General, who aptly observed: “We are sometimes told a rising tide of economic growth lifts all boats.
But in reality, rising inequality sinks all boats.”
Let us emerge from this conference with a clear roadmap, concrete measures, and realistic timelines for placing women’s current and future financial well-being at the centre of our work.
Let us be bold in our ambitions and unwavering in our commitment to ensuring that the financial systems of tomorrow work for all—not just a few.
Once again, thank you very much and I very much look forward to our engagements.