2 October 2025, Nairobi: African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and Women’s World Banking (WWB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen support for women entrepreneurs across Africa. This partnership underscores both organizations’ commitment to advancing women’s economic empowerment through increased access to finance, technical support, and advocacy initiatives.
AGF, a leading pan-African guarantee and capacity development provider, works to bridge the SME financing gap by offering risk-sharing mechanisms and capacity development assistance to financial institutions. WWB is a global NGO & investor dedicated to advancing financial inclusion for the 700 million women excluded from the formal financial sector. For over 45 years, they have partnered with financial institutions and policymakers to design, develop, and implement solutions that drive systemic change for women.
Through this partnership, AGF and WWB will collaborate on initiatives designed to:
- Expand access to credit for women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through tailored guaranteed solutions.
- Deliver training and capacity building for financial service providers (FSPs) to strengthen their ability to serve women-owned/led businesses.
- Provide technical assistance and mentorship to women entrepreneurs, enhancing their business resilience and growth.
- Advocate for policies and practices that drive gender-inclusive finance across Africa.
In his remarks, AGF Group CEO, Jules Ngankam, emphasized the importance of women entrepreneurs to Africa’s growth. “Women entrepreneurs represent one of the continent’s greatest untapped resources, yet they face a significant funding gap of USD 42 billion. This new partnership with WWB allows us to combine our strengths to break these barriers and create a more inclusive financial ecosystem for women-led businesses in Africa,” said Jules.
Speaking about the partnership, Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, said “We are delighted to formalize this collaboration with AGF, which combines our deep expertise in designing financial products and solutions for women with their powerful pan-African footprint and guarantee solutions. By leveraging our respective strengths in capacity building, technical assistance, and de-risking financial institutions, we will unlock significant capital for women-led MSMEs leading to jobs being created and fostering economic growth for all. This MOU establishes a framework to replicate and scale impactful, gender-inclusive models, and we look forward to realizing this shared vision with AGF.”
The partnership will also pave the way for replicating and scaling successful models across AGF’s footprint in 44 African countries, amplifying the impact on women-owned businesses continent-wide.
About African Guarantee Fund
African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is a specialized guarantee provider whose mission is to facilitate economic development and poverty reduction in Africa. To achieve this, AGF increases access to finance for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) across key economic sectors through an array of guarantee products and capacity development assistance. Since inception, AGF has unlocked more than USD 5 billion in SME financing, through partnerships with over 250 partner financial institutions across 44 African countries.
AGF is backed by the following shareholders and sponsors: The Government of Denmark through the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Government of Spain through the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID), the African Development Bank (AfDB), French Development Agency (AFD), Nordic Development Fund (NDF), Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), German Development Bank (KfW), French Agency for Private Sector (PROPARCO), West African Development Bank (BOAD), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), TechnoServe, Norad, Mastercard Foundation and African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI).
African Guarantee Fund is rated AA- by Fitch Ratings.
For more information, please visit www.agf.africa or contact Laban Cliff Onserio | Senior Communications & PR Officer – AGF | info.communications@agf.africa | +254 780 420 423
About Women’s World Banking
For over 45 years, Women’s World Banking has been dedicated to serving the nearly 700 million women excluded by the formal financial sector. As an NGO, we partner with financial institutions and policymakers to design, develop and implement solutions and programs that facilitate systemic change for women. As an investor, we advance women in the workplace and as customers through direct equity – to bring them security, prosperity, and independence. Since 2018 Women’s World Banking has reached more than 91 million women and 54 million men, helping to change not only their lives but also of their households, communities, and countries.
It is our core belief that financial inclusion is essential in the path to women’s economic empowerment. We know that low-income women are disproportionately impacted by the effects of systemic shocks including climate change. We have made it our mission to accelerate access and usage of scalable and commercially viable financial solutions and to build women’s capabilities. We are addressing systemic and other biases that disadvantage women, by building the evidence base through proprietary research. We advocate for inclusive regulation and governance by educating and informing key decision makers and leaders about the impact of discriminatory laws and practices. We recognize the potential of women across the globe, and it is our evidenced belief that equal representation drives social and business outcomes and economic growth.
For more information, please visit www.womensworldbanking.org or contact cb@womensworldbanking.org
