global gender gap and 202 years to bring about parity in the workplace. ghana placed 89th among 149 participating countries in 2018 in terms of the gender gap ( wef 2018 ) ; female talent is reported to be among the least utilized economic and business resources around the world. a recent mckinsey study posits that making even small inroads in closing the global gender gap could potentially increase global gdp by $ 12 trillion by 2025 ; further studies show that the contributions of african women to economic activities on the continent are considerable, albeit mostly informal. the un fao estimates that women in africa are responsible for 70 % of crop production, 50 % of animal husbandry and 60 % of market activity. women undertake nearly 100 % of food processing activities, in addition to child care and other responsibilities in households ; an ernst & young report asserts that women in africa make up over 50 % of africa ’ s growing population, and yet are “ a powerful untapped economic force ” that should be further harnessed as an important contributor to the african growth story ; according to the latest world bank enterprise survey, in both the public and private sectors, only 1 in 26 salaried african women is employed in a senior management position, compared with 1 in every 6 men. women ’ s formal ownership of smes currently stands at around a third of all registered smes in africa, and womenowned smes are more likely to have lower sales and annual turnover, less employees, and smaller size than those enterprises owned by men. in spite of these statistics, there is hardly any controversy about the immense role played by women in building homes, communities, societies, nations, and beyond. at least in ghana, the hard work and sacrifices of women in every sphere of our national life from time immemorial, are well recognized and praised often. yet we must ask ourselves why are there so few women in the corporate board rooms or in parliament? why are so many women confined to the informal sector? why do women own only a third of all smes in africa? why are smes owned by women more likely to be smaller than those owned by men? why do women remain “ a powerful untapped economic force ” in a continent that is seeking to emerge from the tag of being the world ’ s poorest? how can we tap more into the talents, gifts, intellect, and perspectives of women to advance our nation - building efforts? what will it take for women to

the past, they have recently come under scrutiny for their role in the financial market turbulence. however, because rating agencies rely on their reputations, they have strong incentives to improve the information content of their ratings for complex financial instruments, to ensure that all material facts are disclosed in a concise and timely manner, and to address inherent conflicts of interest in the ratings process. they have shown an ability and willingness to learn from their mistakes, and they are regularly refining their rating processes. 7 this does not mean, though, that investors can rely exclusively on the judgment of others. in the end, investors must accept responsibility for understanding and managing the credit risk in their portfolios. i'll turn now to some issues regarding financial institutions and their regulation. i'll focus on a few issues related to the models of operations in these institutions, the management of risks, and the management and regulation of liquidity. we can now see that one of the key problems with securitized u. s. subprime mortgages rested with the so - called " originate and distribute " model in which mortgage originators, many of whom did not face the same regulations as banks, entered into mortgage contracts with homeowners, and then laid off these assets as they were securitized. in principle, there is nothing wrong with having a model based on " originate and distribute, " but in practice, a number of major things went wrong, as we saw in the recent u. s. example. for example, some originators did not have sufficient incentives to conduct appropriate credit checks on clients. this model is now being closely examined by regulators in the united states and around the world, to ensure that the right incentives for originators and distributors are in place and are appropriately aligned. risk management within banks themselves is also facing scrutiny. in many cases, their riskmanagement practices did not prepare banks for the recent market turbulence, and so these market practices need to be addressed. while the basel committee on banking supervision has devoted most of its time over the past several years to completing its work on capital adequacy, it is now devoting more time and resources to the analysis of risk - management processes in banks and to the principles of liquidity management for banks. 8 let me turn now to the financial stability policies of central banks. when there is a clear market failure and a major disruption to financial stability, a central bank – depending on circumstances – may wish to relieve liquidity pressures on the