African Development Bank’s AFAWA initiative gets $251mn at G7 Summit

A package of total USD 251 million has been approved by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron and G7 leaders on Sunday, August 25 in support of African Development Bank's Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), which was launched since 2016 to promote women's access to finance and entrepreneurship in Africa.

"I am particularly proud, as the current G7 president, that the programme we are supporting today, the AFAWA initiative, comes from an African organisation, the African Development Bank, which works with African guarantee funds and a network of African banks," France's Head of State, Emmanuel Macron said.

Before the starting of G7 Summit, it was revealed that African Development Bank's AFAWA would be more fully explained to the international media and the bank's President Akinwumi Adesina elaborated in depth the objectives behind this pan-African initiative intended at closing the financial gap the women are confronting in Africa and unlocking their entrepreneurial capacity.

The risk-sharing mechanism used by AFAWA is a practical approach to international commitments. It is a direct response to the demand by women to ease access to financing, specifically on the need to establish a financing mechanism for women's economic empowerment, adopted during a summit of African heads of state in 2015 and assigned to the African Development Bank (AfDB) for implementation. "African women are the backbone of the continent. I'm thrilled to bring their voice to the G7. AFAWA is essential for our continent," Beninese artist Angelique Kidjo, a guest at the press conference in her role as programme ambassador, opined.

The new support is highly expected to provide "extraordinary support" and "incredible momentum" to AfDB's AFAWA programme. "This is a great day for African women. Investing in women entrepreneurs in Africa is important, because women are not only Africa's future, they are Africa's present," Akinwumi Adesina said.

Supported by the G7 countries, the AFAWA initiative of AfDB is based on three fundamental principles. The first is to improve women's access to financing through innovative and adapted financial instruments, including guarantee mechanisms to support women entrepreneurs. The second principle is to provide capacity-building services to women entrepreneurs, including access to mentoring and training courses in entrepreneurship. The third principle is improving the legal and regulatory environment, eliminating obstacles that specifically affect women by engaging in policy dialogue with governments, central banks, and other institutions.

Also Read: Emerging Growth Story and ICT as a Catalyst in African Economic Outlook 2019