FinEquity Africa On Our Radar: January 2024

FSD Africa’s 2023 Development Impact Report discusses progress on their sustainable finance strategy. It also share lessons learnt on how to make finance work harder for Africa, for present and future generations.

Digital lending is expanding rapidly across markets with significant mobile money or mobile banking penetration. And as with all financial services, access and utilization patterns differ by gender. How can digital lenders be conscious of the range of gender issues that might be at work and adapt their practices to be attractive and useful for women? FSD Uganda and the FSD Network Gender Collaborative Programme explored these issues through a partnership with a digital lender in Uganda from 2021-2023. The results point to specific things this firm is doing right and where they might improve, while also providing a framework for how other firms might review their own data and practices in an effort to be more gender intentional.

Women Entrepreneurs around the globe create jobs, drive prosperity in their communities, strengthen industries, and fuel innovation. This toolkit provides an updated conceptual foundation for addressing the financing needs of women-led businesses, touching on definitional challenges as well as myths and gender norms affecting women entrepreneurs, together with actionable solutions for practitioners wanting to move the needle on women's economic empowerment.

In this podcast, Pranav Singh, Tahira Mohamed, and Wendy Chamberlin explore the role locally-led adaptation plays in building resilience among East Africa’s pastoralists. In this first episode of a two-part series, the speakers share their thoughts on the inequitable impact of climate change on female pastoralists. The podcast offers valuable insights into how a locally-led approach to climate adaptation can empower such communities and ensure effective and context-specific implementation.

According to the World Bank, 530 million women in Africa are un-or underbanked. In this blog, Ade Ashaye, Regional Head for Africa, Women’s World Banking (WWB) highlights that if current trends continue, it would take 103 years to achieve gender equality in financial services access in Nigeria. He shares how WWB Africa is disrupting these trends by nurturing relationships, forging impactful partnerships, and crafting scalable women-centered financial solutions in Africa's largest economy.