[ad_1]
The African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative has reached a milestone of $1 billion in approved funds designated to lend to women entrepreneurs in Africa.
This is yet another milestone for the bank, following last week’s historic summit to tackle the escalating challenges of food security in Africa. Co-hosted by the World Bank and the Government of Senegal, the Dakar 2 Africa Food Summit brought together 34 heads of state and government, more than 70 ministers, private sector farmers representatives and development partners.
AFAWA was launched at the 1st Feed Africa Conference (Dakar 1 African Food Summit) held in Dakar in 2015.
Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the World Bank, said: AFAWA’s benchmark is a reminder that when we invest in growing Africa’s food system, we must also invest in Africa’s women farmers. “
Women run the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa’s agricultural sector, but face significant barriers in accessing finance. Across the African continent, African women entrepreneurs face an estimated $42 billion gender funding gap compared to men.
Over the past two years, the World Bank has seven-fold increased its investment in women-owned SMEs through AFAWA.
“By the end of December 2022, AFAWA-approved loans to women-led SMEs reached $1.051 billion. said Marad Kaba, Director of the Bank’s Gender, Women and Civil Society Department. “AFAWA approved loans span 27 countries and are made through 56 financial institutions. Already, she has 4,115 women business owners benefiting from her AFAWA lending vehicle. It’s just too much,” she added.
Already, the economic barriers to growing businesses for African women ‘agripreneurs’ are being addressed through AFAWA’s investment. AFAWA works to increase the professional and financial capacity of her over 200 women’s cooperatives in the staple crop sector of Côte d’Ivoire. This includes training and access to a digital platform that connects women producers with agricultural buyers – wholesalers, retailers and consumers – across Côte d’Ivoire.
Additionally, AFAWA is working with Ecobank on the project ‘Financing Climate Resilient Agricultural Practices in Ghana’. In this project, he mobilized $20 million from the Green Climate Fund and his $5 million from Ecobank Ghana in co-financing to fill the working capital gap to farmers. The AFAWA project aims to provide funding and technical assistance to 400 women-led farmer-based associations and women-owned SMEs to increase agricultural productivity and strengthen climate-resilient practices. .
To reach $5 billion in loans for women by 2026, AFAWA has established a guarantee mechanism that de-risks the women’s market and enhances the ability of financial institutions to lend to women business owners.
AFAWA also launched a Women Entrepreneurship Assistance Program that provides up to $250,000 to women’s business associations, incubators, accelerators, women-led cooperatives and civil society organizations. This program prepares women small businesses to access credit and expand their business. The program recruited its first cohort of 10 enablers (link is external) in July 2022. These enablers are expected to apply the skills learned in the enabler program to reach over 15,000 women-led micro and small businesses. Her second open call for the program attracted over 1,200 applicants. A second cohort will be announced later this year.
“In 2023, we will continue to work closely with our partners to accelerate our ability to lend to women-led micro and small businesses. It is important to ensure that the sector is inclusive, so we will work closely with policymakers to ensure that appropriate reforms are put in place to facilitate financial access for women-led SMEs.” said Kaba.
[ad_2]
Source link
