At the ABH Policy & Partnership Forum hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), GIZ and the Visa Foundation, one message resonated deeply: Africa’s potential for sustainable growth will only be realised when youth and women are meaningfully included in economic systems, not as beneficiaries, but as co-creators of value.
Representing M-Kyala Ventures, I was struck by a recurring theme throughout the discussions: the urgent need to create an enabling environment for sustainable, inclusive and dignified employment.
Despite the numerous interventions targeting youth and women across the continent, the structural barriers that limit their full participation persist, particularly in access to finance, productive assets and decision-making spaces.
Understanding the exclusion gap
Data from FSD Kenya illustrates not only the gaps, but also the opportunities we have:
- Youth aged 18–25 remain the most excluded from financing, while those aged 26–35 still access less than the national average.
- Although 85.2% of adults own phones, only half of these are smartphones.
- Only 48.4% of adults use the internet weekly.
- Access to traditional banks stands at 29.9%, while mobile money reaches 82.3%, and chama (self-help groups) participation is at 30.8%.
- Out of 3.77 million businesses, 2.01 million are youth-led and 2.06 million are female-led.
These figures underscore a paradox: while digital connectivity and entrepreneurship are expanding, systemic exclusion continues to marginalise key segments of society, especially young women.
The reality is that access alone does not equate to empowerment. Across much of Africa, women continue to face a triple burden, limited access to education, land, and finance, which collectively undermines their economic agency. Even in countries such as Rwanda, where female representation in governance and education levels is relatively high, women’s economic participation remains constrained by entrenched social norms, restrictive inheritance practices and institutional bias within financial systems.
From “risky borrowers” to catalysts of economic transformation
There is an urgent need to shift the prevailing narrative that frames youth and women as risky borrowers. They are, in fact, the backbone of informal economies and drivers of innovation across agribusiness, manufacturing and the service sectors.
At M-Kyala Ventures, we have consistently observed that when women entrepreneurs access tailored financing, capacity-building and market linkages, the multiplier effect is immediate and far-reaching. To unlock this potential, Africa’s financial architecture must evolve to reflect the lived realities of women and youth through gender-smart financial innovation, including:
- First-loss guarantees and unsecured financing mechanisms (such as those pioneered by Aceli Africa) to address collateral constraints.
- Recognition of alternative collateral, including digital transaction histories, group guarantees, or inventory, as legitimate within regulatory frameworks.
- Interest rate subsidies for financial institutions investing in women- and youth-led agribusinesses.
- Targeted equity investments for early-stage ventures to catalyse growth and future exits.
- Data-driven policy and monitoring systems to ensure continuous adaptation based on evidence from field-level interventions.
M-Kyala Ventures’ Advisory Consultant, Ashley Mutiso, taking the stage at the ABH Policy & Partnership Forum.
Such mechanisms would not only deepen financial inclusion but also enable women and youth to transition from survival enterprises to scalable ventures that contribute meaningfully to economic resilience.
Integrating gender-transformative and intersectional approaches
However, inclusive finance cannot exist in isolation from broader social transformation. Financial systems are embedded within social structures, and without addressing these underlying dynamics, inclusion efforts remain superficial.
Gender-transformative approaches, such as the Gender Action Learning System (GALS), have proven effective in shifting mindsets at the household and community levels by redefining power relations and promoting joint decision-making. Similarly, initiatives such as Côte d’Ivoire’s “School for Husbands” demonstrate the importance of engaging men as allies in dismantling patriarchal norms that constrain women’s agency.
Institutionally, governments and development organisations must move beyond policy rhetoric to enforce the implementation of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) frameworks. This includes building accountability mechanisms and ensuring that public and private actors alike embed inclusivity within design, delivery, and evaluation processes.
Inclusion by design: a systems perspective
True inclusion requires intentional design; it cannot be retrofitted. A systems perspective recognises that women and youth are not homogeneous groups. Their experiences are shaped by intersecting factors such as geography, age, education, disability and marital status. Recognising these differences ensures that interventions are context-specific, equitable and sustainable.
Transformative change is iterative. It requires patient capital, cross-sectoral collaboration and community-led approaches that prioritise local knowledge and lived experiences. This is where organisations like M-Kyala Ventures seek to add value by bridging gender expertise, capital innovation and ecosystem partnerships to create long-term pathways for inclusive economic participation.
Toward resilient and inclusive economies
As Africa continues its demographic and economic transformation, the question is no longer whether to include women and youth, it is how to redesign systems that fully enable their participation.
Redefining access to finance, land and opportunity through a gender-aware, evidence-driven lens is essential to building resilient economies. The future of African development depends not merely on extending inclusion, but on transforming the structures that govern it. At M-Kyala Ventures, our work is grounded in this belief: inclusion is not charity, it is strategy. When women and youth thrive, entire economies do.
About the author
Ashley is an Advisory Consultant at M-Kyala Ventures, a Pan-African advisory firm advancing gender-smart finance, inclusive entrepreneurship, and systems change for women and youth across Africa.