CEM REPORT | Small and Medium women enterprise in Nigeria would get a share of 15 million dollars through the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
The funds which will be received by the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Africa Digital Financial Inclusion (ADFI) facility, purposed to develop and extend digital financial solutions to women-owned small and medium businesses in Africa.
The funds according to the ADFi facility, would enable design and implementation of programmes to improve digital access to finance for women entrepreneurs.
According to the information released on the bank’s website, other women entrepreneurs from Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya and Mozambique would also benefit from the fund noting that it would also reduce the 42 billion dollars gender finance gap and improve women’s operational efficiency to build back better, following the COVID-19 crisis.
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Director of the Financial Sector Development Department of AfDB, Stefan Nalletamby, said digital financial solutions is key to improving the quality of life of people in Africa.
”This funding, which is complementary to the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, will be used to provide an avenue for their increased economic empowerment and resilience,” Nalletamby said.
The We-Fi, initiative supports women entrepreneurs by scaling up access to financial products and services, build capacity, expanding networks, offering mentors, and providing opportunities to link with domestic and global markets.
We-Fi works with six multilateral development banks as implementing partners: AfDB, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.
Others are European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank Group (including IFC)..
