Africa
We are working to build impact and scale for women’s economic power and resilience in the region.
Usage and Engagement for Underbanked
Despite strong economic contributions, women across Africa continue to face structural barriers to financial inclusion. More than half remain unbanked, limiting their ability to invest, save, and build resilience. Key barriers include:
Persistent gender gaps in account ownership and access to formal credit—driven by social norms, collateral requirements, and limited financial literacy.
Heavy concentration of women in the informal economy, where low and irregular incomes restrict savings and borrowing opportunities.
Limited access to digital channels: only 19% of rural women have internet access and 75% own smartphones, curbing participation in the digital economy.
Constrained access to productive resources—land, inputs, and digital tools—reduces women farmers’ yields by up to 25% compared to men.
A $42 billion financing gap for women-owned businesses, alongside limited gender-intentional lending and product design by financial institutions.
High youth unemployment, particularly among young women, further limiting pathways to financial independence and long-term security.
How We're Addressing the Problem
Through our three strategic pillars, financial services providers (FSP) advisory and advocacy, research and thought leadership, and policy advisory and advocacy, we are addressing this gap for a systemic change in Africa.
FSP Advisory and Advocacy
We partner with banks, microfinance institutions, fintechs, insurers, and cooperatives to design women-centered financial solutions—spanning savings, credit, insurance, and payments. Our work combines product innovation with financial literacy and business training so women can confidently manage money and grow their enterprises.
In Nigeria, we collaborated with FSPs to expand equitable access to credit and build gender-balanced loan portfolios. We also co-developed credit-linked health insurance products with partners including FCMB (Nigeria), Lead Foundation (Egypt), Microfund for Women (Jordan), and Al Amana (Morocco)—together reaching nearly one million women.
Research and Thought Leadership
We conduct research to understand the barriers women face in accessing financial services. ​The research helps inform policy, strategy and the design of products and services, that consider the context of women.​ Example include: A policy diagnostic on Women in Leadership, Gates Women in Leadership Landscape Research, and Empowering Nigeria’s Women Micro-Entrepreneurs.
Policy Advisory and Advocacy
Our work is aimed at engaging global policymakers as a thought leader, expert, and trusted partner to influence, develop/ adopt policies, initiatives, and strategies that actively promote and accelerate financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment.
Through the Leadership Development Program for Regulators, we have actively recruited and trained senior policy, regulatory and supervisory leaders from across Africa (Nigeria, Rwanda, Morocco, and Egypt) to invest in women leaders and implement policy frameworks that benefit their country contexts.
For example, in Rwanda, we provided the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) with a supervisory guide self-assessment tool to enhance the supervision of financial institutions and provide a robust framework for objectively tracking and measuring gender performance at the national level.
What We Are Doing
Our activities fall into 4 focus areas.
- Drive savings mobilization and account activation
- Leverage remittances as an onboarding mechanism to drive account
access - Provide access to capital for women-owned MSMEs
- Support resilience building through insurance
Results We Are Seeing
Through our partnerships with Access Bank, Sterling Bank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Wema, Ecobank, Polaris, Stanbic IBTC, Accion, Fidelity Bank, Baobab, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Equity, Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), Sidian Bank, Access Bank Kenya, First Bank Nigeria (FBN), Finance Trust Bank (FTB), Branch, Bank of Industry (BOI), Lead Foundation, Al Amana, Zep-Re and Swiss Re, we have been able to deliver the below results.
Credit
- In 2023, we partnered with FSPs in Nigeria to develop a digital credit activation solution for their women customers. To date, rolled out three digital credit solutions. Additionally, launched a digital credit activation toolkit for financial institutions to adopt as a guide in developing digital credit solutions for women customers.
- In 2023, we deployed a gender-balance scorecard toolkit for FSPs to ensure equitable access to credit for women.
Savings
In 2022, we partnered with a cohort of three commercial banks and a microfinance bank in Nigeria to develop and implement customized replications of the Bank of Baroda (India) savings mobilization solution. To date, three commercial banks have launched their pilot programs. In addition, we conducted two convenings with financial institutions and published two toolkits – The Account Activation Toolkit and the Savings Mobilization Replication Toolkit.
Insurance
- Since 2009, we have partnered with FSPs in Egypt, Morocco, Uganda, Nigeria, and Senegal to develop women-centric health insurance products for their customers. The insurance solutions were either bundled with credit or offered voluntarily to savings customers. To date, four insurance solutions have been rolled out.
- Since September 2024, we have been working with Zep Re and Swiss Re to develop life and health insurance for pastoralists in Kenya. This project is part of the DRIVE (De-Risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement) program, that aims at building resilience of pastoralists in the Horn of Africa region.
- To date we have reached 1,050,000 customers, including 680,000 women through our insurance programs in Africa.
Remittances
We have worked with Access Bank, the largest pan-African retail bank, to develop a solution that leverages its network as a springboard to drive the financial inclusion of remittance recipients.
Policy Advocacy and Advisory
- In 2019, under our guidance, the CBN revised its framework for women’s financial inclusion and introduced eight strategic priorities, with a Community of Practice approach to driving progress in eight areas.
- In 2022, we held a dual workshop: one for financial services providers and another for regulators in Nigeria. The focus was on sharing insights from our research on women in leadership, along with recommendations for promoting and sustaining the increase of women in leadership positions within Nigeria’s finance sector.
- In 2024, we conducted a workshop on empowering women in finance and deployed supervisory guidelines for a women’s financial inclusion self-assessment tool for the National Bank of Rwanda.
Our Africa Team
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Our Regional Partners
Financial Service Providers (FSPs)
Nigeria
- Access Bank Nigeria
- Bank of Industry – Nigeria
- First Bank of Nigeria
- Sparkle Microfinance Bank – Nigeria
- Sterling Bank – Nigeria
- Wema Bank – Nigeria
- Accion MFB h. Fidelity Bank i. Ecobank
- Opay
- Stanbic IBTC
- FCMB
- Carbon
Egypt
- Lead
Kenya
- Equity Bank Limited
- Kenya Women Microfinance Bank Limited
- Mosabi d. Pula
- KCB
Ghana
- Access Bank Ghana
- Mosabi Kenya
- People’s Pension Trust
Mozambique
- Access Bank Mozambique
- Hiveonline
Rwanda
- Access Bank Rwanda
- Hiveonline Rwanda
South Africa
- Access Bank South Africa
- Tyme Bank – South Africa
Morocco
- Association Al Amana – Morocco
Burundi
- Caisse Coopérative d’Epargne et de Crédit Mutuel (CECM) – Burundi
Uganda
- Finance Trust Bank – Uganda
- Hiveonline
Zambia
- Access Bank Zambia
- Hiveonline – Zambia
- Mosabi – Zambia
Senegal
- MaTontine – Senegal
- MyAgro – Senegal
- Baobab
Malawi
- Mosabi – Malawi
Sierra Leone
- Mosabi – Sierra Leone
Tanzania
- MyAgro – Mali, Senegal, Tanzania
- NMB – Tanzania
Ethiopia
- Poverty Eradication & Community Empowerment (PEACE) MFI S.CO
Policymakers and Regulators
Nigeria
Central Bank of Nigeria
Egypt
Central Bank of Egypt
Financial Regulatory Authority
Ghana
Bank of Ghana
National Insurance Commission
Mozambique
Banco de Moçambique
Madagascar
Ministry of Finance and Budget
Rwanda
National Bank of Rwanda
Eswatini
Central Bank of Eswatini
Lesotho
Central Bank of Lesotho
Zambia
Bank of Zambia
Zimbabwe
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Research Partners
- Nielsen
- Ipsos
- Qualiquant Services LTD
Case Studies
Cohort Replication
