Closing gender financing gap: Why Africa's biggest opportunity is where capital goes next

At Wakulima Market in Nairobi, a woman arranges crates of tomatoes at dawn, negotiating prices, managing suppliers and planning her next purchase before most of the city wakes up.

At Agbogbloshie Market in Accra, another trader, a woman, moves goods across stalls, juggling inventory, cash flow and customers with a precision built over years of experience.

In Dar es Salaam, a young female entrepreneur tracks orders on her phone, managing a growing business that connects local production to regional demand.

Different cities. Different stories. But the same reality. Across Africa, women are not on the margins of the economy; they are at its centre. 

Yet, the continent’s most reliable borrowers remain its most overlooked.  They produce, trade, build and sustain.

They move goods across borders, manage complex supply chains, and run businesses that keep households and economies functioning.  And when they access credit, they repay. 

The African Development Bank reports that 9 out of 10 women repay their loans. A 2024 survey by the European Investment Bank found that nearly 70% of banks in sub-Saharan Africa observe lower non-performing loan (NPL) rates among women-led businesses. Which raises a fundamental question: If women are among the most reliable borrowers in the system, why are they still the most underserved?  Africa does not have a capital problem; it has a capital allocation problem.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, “Give to Gain,” captures a truth that African women have always lived. When you back a woman’s business, the return does not stop with her.  The trader who receives a loan employs her neighbour.  The entrepreneur who expands creates opportunity across her supply chain.  The impact multiplies across households, markets and borders.  Yet, women-owned small and medium enterprises across sub-Saharan Africa face a US$42 billion financing gap.

This is not a demand problem. Women want capital. They qualify for capital.  This is a supply problem.  That US$42 billion is not just a gap; it is an idle opportunity.  It is interest income not yet earned, customers not yet acquired, growth not yet realised, and jobs not yet created.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that equal participation in entrepreneurship could unlock between US$2.5 trillion and US$5 trillion globally. The African Development Bank projects that closing the gender gap in agricultural productivity alone could increase GDP by up to 12% in some countries. These are not social arguments.  They are economic facts, and that is why the conversation must shift.  For too long, we have focused on what women lack: collateral, formal credit history, and documentation.  

But the real question is:  what are we failing to recognise?  Women are already demonstrating what financial institutions seek:

• resilience across economic cycles;
• strong repayment behaviour; and 
• disciplined reinvestment (up to 90% of income into families and businesses) 

Yet the irony remains, with the financial system’s most reliable customers still its most overlooked.  The reason lies in structural legacy systems.  Credit models continue to prioritise land and fixed assets, even when women run high-turnover businesses that move goods across borders.  Risk frameworks rely on formal histories, while women transact through mobile money, informal networks and community systems that traditional scoring models do not capture.  Product design has often followed a one-size-fits-all approach, while women’s business journeys are dynamic and non-linear.  The opportunity before us is clear:  build financial systems that reflect the realities of Africa’s entrepreneurs.

Across the continent, this shift is already underway.  Ecobank’s Ellevate programme is one example, evolving from a credit solution into a broader ecosystem that combines financing, market access and capacity building.  Through platforms like MyTradeHub, women are not just accessing capital; they are accessing markets across Africa.  But no single institution can close a US$42 billion gap.  This requires an ecosystem:  banks, fintechs developing alternative credit models, guarantee structures that de-risk lending, development finance institutions providing catalytic capital and networks that reach women where they are.  Because when the system works, the results are clear.

The woman in Lusaka is scaling her agribusiness into a regional supplier. The entrepreneur in Dar es Salaam employs dozens because capital arrived at the right time.    The trader in Kinshasa is keeping her business (and her family) afloat through difficult seasons.    This is what “Give to Gain” looks like in practice.

• A cycle of investment and reinvestment.
• Of resilience and return.
• Of capital that does not just circulate, but compounds.

The institutions that understand this will define Africa’s next phase of growth.   Because this is not about inclusion, it is about intelligent allocation of capital.  The US$42 billion gap is not a constraint. It is a prospectus. A pipeline of bankable customers. A blueprint for growth. A lever for economic transformation.

And the conclusion is clear: Africa probably does not need more capital.  It needs to move capital where it delivers the greatest return. Give to Gain.

The writer is the former Managing Director of Ecobank Gambia and Ecobank Kenya, and Group Executive for Commercial Banking. She is currently the Ecobank Group’s Regional Executive for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (CESA), overseeing 17 African countries, Acting Managing Director of the Group’s technology arm - EProcess, and the Interim Group Executive for Technology and Innovation.