Two years ago, my business partner and I were in need of gap financing while we waited for a client to pay us. We approached the main banks but, even with collateral and our education technology company’s healthy financial record, we were deemed too big a risk and turned down.But little did I know at the time that our record of an unsuccessful application would not only affect me, but all black women entrepreneurs.
Although the industry is talking about the job losses these investments will cause in the sector, there have been no conversations about the potential racial and sexist bias that could become entrenched as a result of AI. African Development Bank’s director of gender, women and civil society, Vanessa Moungar, said there is a huge financing gap in Africa that must be bridged. Although black women are the largest self-employed group of the population, their ability to grow their businesses has been limited by not having ready access to credit or security-backed finance.
But these historic data records, in which white borrowers are favoured, are part of the bank’s records being used to train AI machines right now.
I dispute the constant race and gender refrain. That is plain sensationalist nonsense. When did you last see a white person assisting customers at a bank. Whites are excluded. It is now about means to repay, totally colour blind.