AfDB approves $42bn to bridge women financing gap

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a new Gender Equality Trust Fund (GETF) aimed at pushing forward gender equality and women’s empowerment across the African continent.

Specifically, the GETF will support the delivery and scaleup of the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) programme and promote gender transformative lending and non-lending operations.

It is the first thematic fund on gender in the Bank Group’s history. The Fund will be established for an initial period of 10 years, the multilateral lender said in a statement.

Anchor investors in the GETF are the governments of France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

AFAWA is the AfDB’s flagship pan-African initiative which aims to bridge the $42 billion financing gap facing women in Africa. Through AFAWA, the bank is spearheading a major push to unlock women’s entrepreneurial capacity and economic participation for maximum development impact.

The Board of Directors of the bank had on March 31st approved a Risk-Sharing Mechanism - an innovative financial instrument to derisk women-empowered businesses, enhance their profile with banks and support them to grow and thrive as entrepreneurs.

In his remarks on the approvals by the board, the bank’s President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said: “It’s a great day for us as a Bank. It is a great day for the continent and the women of Africa as this facility provides innovative ways to tackle the access to finance challenges for African women business owners.”