Browsing: AFAWA

AFAWA Finance Initiative
  • The AFAWA initiative seeks to increase women’s access to finance in the continent by bridging the $42 billion financing gap for women-led and owned small and medium enterprises.
  • Since its inception just over two years ago, the AFAWA initiative has already approved $1.2 billion in funding for women-led enterprises in 32 African countries.
  • Previous AFAWA Finance Series have been held in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Angola and Nigeria.

The African Development Bank through its Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, in partnership with African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and in collaboration with the Office of the President’s Advisor on Women’s Rights, have inaugurated the 6th edition of the AFAWA Finance Series in Nairobi, Kenya.

In a three-day event themed “Enhancing Financial Inclusion for Women”, that ended on 23rd November, the initiative seeks to revolutionise the financial landscape and foster an enabling environment for women …

Women mean business in Africa, and available data shows that they tend to execute business operations or manage, compared to their male counterparts, thus—supporting women business with credit, business skills, and conducive operating environment might be the break that Africa has been eyeing.

According to the World Bank Report (Profit from Parity, Unlocking the potential of women business in Africa-2019), there are three factors that are found to limit women potentials in the business sphere, which are social norms, legal discrimination and the risk of gender-based violence ( for instance, the report shows, 14 per cent of women entrepreneurs in Malawi have been subjected to physical or emotional violence from their male counterparts).

All three factors are also buried under various segments such as endowment, which carry: education/skills, confidence or risks, finance and assets, networks and information. Another segment, that is an underlying constraint is the household level environment, which …