15 years of experience working in finance provided a front row seat to the growing underrepresentation of African women entrepreneurs within the funding spectrum which was reiterated by AfdB’s 2019 report that estimated a financing gap of 42 billion dollars for African women entrepreneurs across all value chains. This being at the backdrop of Africa as the only continent with women as the largest percentage of entrepreneurs.

Across borders the stories were the same. Women were being denied loans that were being awarded to their husbands, when they applied in their stead.  Or failing to access products because of unrealistic collateral requirements even with proof of high value contracts.

The support we provide enables organizations to analyze their existing processes and identify opportunities to develop and strengthen their gender approaches. This helps to place them in a better position to deliver measurable and sustainable value to women entrepreneurs.

We ran two practices; gender lens investing and gender for business to support organizations to develop robust outward and inward-looking gender strategies. Some of our services include designing gender toolkits for investment processes that enable funders to develop pipeline, perform due diligence, structure funding and provide business support with a gender lens. We also support organizations to integrate gender into their strategy and operations and develop relevant pathways to further their entrepreneurial support programming with the aim advancing gender inclusivity.