AfDB, AXIAN Target 34,000 Women-led Businesses to Support with Digital Finance across Africa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and AXIAN Group have launched a digital finance programme aimed at helping more than 34,000 women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) overcome financing barriers and expand their businesses across Africa. Backed by the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). The initiative will deploy digital financial services, business development support and skills training in Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Comoros.

Africa has the world’s highest rate of female entrepreneurs facing a major challenge of financing-disadvantage. The 34,000 Women-led Businesses Support with Digital Finance programme, is designed to tackle that gap, by bringing financial services closer to women who are underserved by the conventional banking systems. Digital finance is a pivot in this focus.

Implementation will run through AXIAN’s digital financial services platforms, Mixx and MVola, using mobile money, digital lending and alternative credit assessment, to widen access to financing. While one component will provide tailored digital financial products and services to 34,000 women-led businesses in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal, the second will provide financial literacy, digital skills and entrepreneurship training to 25,000 women across all five participating countries.

The programme approach mirrors a transition to digital technology usage, addressing gender-based disparities in accessing formal financial services. Women operating small businesses in this stead, have limited access to credit, digital tools, etc.; also, lack of business knowledge can constrain investment, squeezing-down the ability to move from informal to formal markets, which can clearly affect mini job creation opportunities.

“Across Africa, millions of women are already running successful businesses. The challenge is not entrepreneurship. It is access to finance, to digital tools and to opportunities for growth,” said Erwan Gelebart, the CEO of AXIAN Digibank. He said the programme would use technology and financial innovation to help women entrepreneurs build stronger businesses and participate more fully in the digital economy, closing an insistent gender financing gap in Africa.

Women-owned enterprises, account for a significant share of Africa’s entrepreneurial activity. So far, an estimated $49 billion financing gap is persistently limiting their growth.

Melissa Basque-Roux, Coordinator of AfDB’s AFAWA initiative, said women entrepreneurs are central to the continent’s economic transformation, but they still encounter barriers to access finance, digital tools and business support. “Through AFAWA and We-Fi, the African Development Bank is pleased to support this partnership with AXIAN, Mixx and MVola”, she said; adding that the initiative would expand tailored digital financial services that will strengthen financial literacy and create new opportunities for women-led businesses.

The programme will focus on five areas, namely: expand digital finance for women-led enterprises, improve financial/digital literacy; develop products suited for women entrepreneurs; advance mobile-based digital inclusion; and help women-owned businesses, enter and thrive in the formal economy. This initiative will be delivered by Mixx and MVola alongside AXIAN’s local operating companies, combining regional capabilities with country-level implementation.

Building on wider digital inclusion investment, the partnership follows a bigger AfDB support for AXIAN’s digital connectivity and financial inclusion expansion. In January 2025, the Bank approved a $160 million senior corporate loan to support AXIAN Telecom’s expansion across nine African countries, including dedicated financing for 22,000 women entrepreneurs in Madagascar. The latest programme places gender-responsive finance at the centre of that digital expansion, because recognising that connectivity alone does not guarantee economic inclusion.

By combining access to capital with financial literacy, digital skills and business development support, AXIAN and the AfDB, are seeking to address several of the constraints that prevent women-led enterprises from scaling.

With regards to Africa’s growing digital economy, this initiative highlights a wide-range economic opportunity, which essentially shows that closing the gender financing gap, could help more women-owned businesses grow, become formalised, create employment windows and contribute to local and national economies.

Source: AfDB