In the past few months, the volume of investments has grown significantly in Africa. However, gender-sensitive issues are not keeping up with the trend. The new funding round aims to reduce the existing gap.  

The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), announced Tuesday (April 26), its fourth round of financing amounting to US$54.8 million. Part of the fund (US$15 million) will go to the African Development Bank's (AfDB) African Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) to boost women entrepreneurs’ access to digital technologies and finance in Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria.

According to Bärbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the fourth round comes at a “crucial time” marked by pressures on women entrepreneurship due to “conflict and insecurity, rising prices and the continuous fallout from the Covid pandemic around the world.” 

“I am pleased to see our Implementing Partners preparing such strong proposals to support women-led businesses. Access to technology and financing will be key to unlock the potential of women entrepreneurs,” she said. 

The funding round will benefit about 69,000 women entrepreneurs in developing countries, the African Development Bank (AfDB) explains. It will enable the African Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) to develop and implement programs to improve access to digital technologies, reduce the US$42 million gender financing gap and improve beneficiaries’ operational efficiency for sound post-Covid recovery. 

For  Stefan Nalletamby -Director of the Financial Sector Development Department at the African Development Bank Group- the funding will complement the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa Initiative (AFAWA) program. 

It will also “be used [...] to broaden access to finance for women, small and medium businesses” and “provide an avenue for their increased economic empowerment and resilience,” he adds.

The We-Fi initiative is a partnership between 14 governments, eight multilateral development banks (with the AfDB as an implementing partner), and various public and private sector stakeholders. As far as the ADFI is concerned, it was launched in 2019 to “catalyze digital financial inclusion throughout Africa with the goal of ensuring that 332 million more Africans, 60% of them women, gain access to the formal economy by 2030.” 

Ruben Tchounyabe