A new Nigeria-based initiative is aiming to chip away at the staggering $49 billion funding gap facing women entrepreneurs across Africa. The Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF), in partnership with the African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, has launched its Growth Accelerator programme targeting women-led Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (WSMEs) operating within Nigeria.

The programme, announced this week, seeks to address a critical bottleneck hindering economic growth and gender parity across the continent: access to finance for women. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), the financing shortfall for female-owned businesses is a major impediment to unlocking their full potential, despite their demonstrated contribution to job creation and innovation.

This initiative leverages the AfDB’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, a continent-wide effort aimed at unlocking up to $3 billion in financing for WSMEs. The AGF, a pan-African non-bank financial institution, plays a crucial role in this strategy as the implementing partner for AFAWA. Its mandate extends beyond providing guarantees to financial institutions; it includes bolstering the capacity of these partners to effectively serve the specific needs of women-owned businesses. This dual approach of addressing both the supply and demand sides of financing is seen as critical to creating a more level playing field.

FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, a Nigerian financial institution, steps in as the Partner Financial Institution (PFI) under the AFAWA framework. This collaboration empowers FSDH to extend loans specifically to WSMEs within Nigeria, facilitated by the risk-sharing mechanisms provided by AGF and AFAWA. This partnership aligns with FSDH’s own ‘Women in Business Initiative’ (WIBI), demonstrating a growing recognition within the Nigerian financial sector of the economic imperative of supporting female entrepreneurship.

The AWIEF Growth Accelerator programme itself is designed as a rigorous 12-month initiative. It aims to select 100 businesses led by women entrepreneurs operating in Nigeria, equipping them with tailored mentorship, training, and advisory services. The focus is squarely on making these businesses “credit and investment-ready,” ensuring they meet the lending criteria of FSDH Merchant Bank. This involves not just improving their business acumen but also enhancing their understanding of financial ecosystems and loan application processes.

Eligibility criteria for the programme reflect a broad definition of women’s economic empowerment. Businesses can qualify through demonstrating majority female ownership, female founders, significant female representation in senior management or on the board, or by offering products and services that demonstrably enhance the well-being of women and girls or promote gender equity. Crucially, participating businesses must be post-revenue, innovative, scalable, and have been operational for at least three years, indicating a focus on established ventures seeking to expand.

For the selected participants, the benefits extend beyond just potential loan access. The programme promises high-level training to hone technical, managerial, and leadership skills. It also emphasizes building peer networks both within Nigeria and across the continent, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. Furthermore, the initiative aims to integrate these WSMEs more effectively into the wider financial ecosystem, opening doors to diverse funding opportunities beyond the immediate programme.

While the launch of the AWIEF Growth Accelerator is a positive step, significant challenges remain. The $49 billion funding gap highlights the sheer scale of the issue, and questions remain about the long-term sustainability and scalability of such programmes. Measuring the true impact of the accelerator, beyond the immediate cohort of 100 businesses, will be crucial. Furthermore, systemic issues within the Nigerian and wider African financial landscape, including high interest rates and demanding collateral requirements, will need to be addressed in parallel to truly unlock the potential of women entrepreneurs.

Nevertheless, this tri-partite collaboration represents a targeted and potentially impactful intervention. By focusing on practical business development support and directly linking it to access to finance through a committed banking partner, the AWIEF Growth Accelerator offers a tangible pathway for Nigerian women entrepreneurs to overcome a key barrier to growth and contribute more fully to the nation’s economy. The programme’s success will be closely watched as a potential model for similar initiatives across the continent seeking to close the persistent and economically damaging gender finance gap.

Applications for the AWIEF Growth Accelerator programme are open until March 31, 2025. Further details can be found at awief.untapinnovate.com