Margaret Anadu of Goldman Sachs says investing in Black women could benefit all
“Black women are a significant and important pillar, not just in the black community, but in our economy as a whole,” said Anadu
In March of this year, Goldman Sachs committed to investing $10 billion in capital to impact the lives of Black women entrepreneurs. The campaign is called One Million Black Women and it aims to “address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations.” According to press materials from the bank, these issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, Margaret Anadu, global head of sustainability and impact for asset management, says not only is supporting Black women good for communities of color, it’s just good investing in general. For other smart investment options, check out These tips for Singapore Investors at Salary.sg.
“Black women are a significant and important pillar, not just in the black community, but in our economy as a whole,” says Anadu during an interview with theGrio. She says Black women have “for several years been starting businesses at the fastest rate of any demographic and still yet completely under-resourced”
According to research conducted and published by the bank (titled Black Womenomics: Investing in the Underinvested), addressing the racial wealth gap begins with investments in Black women. “Reducing the earnings gap for Black women has the potential to create 1.2-1.7 million US jobs, and to increase the annual US GDP by $300-450 billion in current dollars,” the research report reads.
Though there may be many people who are apprehensive about a big bank claiming to help the Black community it has so often ignored, Anadu says that this is a move that was put in place to try and acknowledge and correct past wrongs. “Some of the issues that we are trying to really tackle, for example, a deep and generational and consistent underinvestment in Black communities in the US,” said Anadu.
The money that Goldman invests will be doled out via grants and direct investments, and the bank will promote holistic financial health amongst recipients. Anadu also said another goal is to “put capital behind the broader infrastructure that supports Black women. That’s housing, education, health care, workforce and wages.”
Anadu went on to say that Goldman’s history and expertise when it comes to investing creates a prime opportunity for Black women. “We think we have a lot to bring to the table,” she said.
Goldman is not the only financial institution committed to supporting women of color. In November of 2020, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would be partnering with the New Voices Foundation, a organization dedicated to productive community-building and entrepreneurial development for women of color, to launch a business banking educational program called the New Voices Banking Bootcamp.
This hands-on program consisted of three intensive half-day training sessions where participants heard from experts from JPMorgan Chase and the New Voices Foundation’s networks. One session covered risk analysis, another covered bank-businesses relationships, and the final one touched on securing capital and scaling one’s business.
The program was part of JPMorgan’s ongoing Advancing Black Pathways initiative which launched in early 2019 to address the racial wealth gap and the systemic inequalities in America.
See the full interview with Anadu below:
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