The African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) will receive $15 million from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) to develop and extend digital financial solutions to women-owned small and medium businesses in Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria.
This $54.8 million fourth round of funding will help over 69,000 women entrepreneurs in poor countries gain access to digital technology and finance.
The monies will allow the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility to design and implement programs to increase digital access to finance for women entrepreneurs, closing a $42 billion funding gap and boosting operational efficiency to help them recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
“The fourth round of We-Fi allocations arrives at a critical juncture. “Conflict and instability, rising prices, and the ongoing impact from the Covid pandemic around the world are putting a strain on women’s economic empowerment,” said Bärbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. “It gives me great pleasure to see our Implementing Partners putting together such solid plans to promote women-owned enterprises.” Women’s entrepreneurs will need access to technology and capital to realize their full potential.”
“Digital financial solutions are critical for enhancing people’s quality of life in Africa and closing the gender gap in access to finance.” This funding, which is in addition to the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa Initiative (AFAWA), will be used to “broaden access to finance for women small and medium businesses while also providing an avenue for increased economic empowerment and resilience,” according to Stefan Nalletamby, Director of the African Development Bank Group’s Financial Sector Development Department.
The Islamic Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and the World Bank Group were among the multilateral development banks that got allocations in this fourth round.
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