Every day across Africa, millions of women are trading and running businesses—in markets, shops, factories and farms—creating jobs, supporting families, communities and countries. Yet despite owning promising enterprises, millions continue to encounter barriers to capital, an age-old challenge that has limited their ability to expand their ventures, create jobs and contribute fully to economic transformation.
It is noteworthy, however, that something transformational is beginning to happen, and it should be sustained. A growing number of financial institutions are challenging long-held assumptions about women-owned businesses and designing products that respond to their realities. Recent recognition of a banking programme in DRC, dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs, demonstrates that change is possible when institutions deliberately choose to address financing barriers rather than reinforce them.
Such initiatives are worth paying attention to because they challenge one of the most persistent myths in finance: that lending to women entrepreneurs is inherently risky. If programmes focused on women-owned businesses can be sustained for years and continue to grow, then perhaps the perceived risk has been overstated all along.
So, what are other banks still waiting for?
I have witnessed first-hand that when financial institutions intentionally invest in women-led businesses, they help build more inclusive, resilient and prosperous economies. For too long, women entrepreneurs have been constrained not by a lack of capability, but by assumptions that have shaped lending decisions and excluded them from opportunities to grow.
Consider the experience of Agnes Maina, a Kenyan entrepreneur whose bakery business struggled for years to access credit. Like many women business owners, she was repeatedly told she lacked sufficient collateral. Everything changed when she obtained financing and technical support through a programme aimed at expanding access to capital for women entrepreneurs.
The investment enabled her to acquire essential equipment and scale production. Today, her business employs 27 people and produces more than 10,000 pieces of bread and buns daily. Beyond direct employment, it supports a wider ecosystem of transporters, suppliers and smaller businesses that depend on its success.
This is just one example of what becomes possible when women entrepreneurs gain access to finance and business support. Across the continent, similar stories demonstrate that the challenge is not a lack of ambition, innovation or business acumen. Rather, it is the persistent financing gap that continues to stifle potential.
In Africa, the financing gap facing women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises is estimated at $42 billion. Despite Sub-Saharan Africa having one of the highest rates of female entrepreneurship in the world, deep-rooted disparities in collateral ownership, digital access and systemic biases continue to prevent many women from scaling their enterprises.
Yet evidence increasingly shows that when financial institutions design products that respond to the realities of women-owned businesses, and back them with technical support, the results can be transformative. Businesses grow. Jobs are created. Communities prosper.
The challenge now is to move beyond isolated success stories and make such approaches the norm rather than the exception. Financial institutions should be intentional in designing products that meet the needs and priorities of women entrepreneurs and innovative enough to serve different categories of businesses at different stages of growth.
By doing so, banks will help Africa unlock a vast reservoir of entrepreneurial talent that only needs to be kickstarted to thrive.
During the recent Africa Forward Summit hosted in Nairobi, a clear consensus emerged: that the continent’s growth story will depend on empowering those who are building businesses and creating solutions on the ground. The continent can no longer afford to exclude women entrepreneurs from that vision. We must all sail forward together if the continent is to realize its full economic potential.
The author is the Director for Gender and Civil Society at the African Development Bank Group.
