AXIAN, AfDB Launch Program for 34K Women-Led Businesses

AXIAN Group and the African Development Bank have launched a new program aimed at expanding financial access and business support for more than 34,000 women-led enterprises across five African countries. The initiative seeks to help women entrepreneurs overcome financial barriers and strengthen their businesses.

The program is supported by the African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. It focuses on improving access to finance, which remains a major challenge for women-owned businesses across the continent.

Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurship globally, but women entrepreneurs continue to face a significant financing shortfall. The estimated funding gap for women-owned businesses in Africa stands at around $49 billion, limiting their ability to expand and create new opportunities.

The initiative will be delivered through AXIAN Group’s digital financial services platforms, Mixx and Mvola. The platforms will provide digital lending, financial literacy programs, business development support and digital inclusion services to help women entrepreneurs expand their businesses and gain greater access to formal financial systems.

Key Highlights:

• 34,000+ women-led businesses to receive digital finance support
• 25,000 women to get financial and digital skills training
• Program aims to close Africa’s $49 billion funding gap for women entrepreneurs

It consists of 2 complementary components. The first will supply customised digital financial products/services to 34,000 micro, small and medium businesses led by women in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal. The second will provide financial literacy and digital skills and entrepreneurship training to 25,000 women in Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Comoros.

The program will build on mobile money services, digital lending solutions and alternative credit assessment tools to deliver to underserved women entrepreneurs in the formal financial system.

Women-owned businesses are one of the biggest, untapped economic opportunities in Africa but are still denied access to the financial tools required to grow, create and play a more central role in their local economies. This partnership is intended to change that, with the help of AXIAN and the African Development Bank.

"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, CEO of AXIAN Digibank and Fintech. "Through Mixx and MVola, we are using technology and financial innovation to support women entrepreneurs in building stronger businesses, creating jobs and participating more fully in the digital economy. This program is about unlocking opportunities at scale.

Melissa Basque-Roux, Coordinator of the African Development Bank’s AFAWA initiative, said that although women entrepreneurs are central to Africa’s economic transformation, too many still face barriers to accessing finance, digital tools and business support needed to grow.

“Through AFAWA and We-Fi, the African Development Bank is pleased to support this partnership with AXIAN, Mixx and MVola. The partnership will expand tailored digital financial services, strengthen financial literacy and unlock new opportunities for women-led businesses across the continent,” she said.    

The program will target five priorities: Access to digital finance for women entrepreneurs, financial and digital literacy, the creation of financial products for women entrepreneurs, promotion of digital inclusion through the use of mobile technology, and support for women entrepreneurs to move and succeed in the formal economy.

The project follows African Development Bank's overall support to AXIAN Telecom. The Bank, in January 2025, approved a $160 million senior corporate loan for the expansion of digital connectivity and financial inclusion in nine African countries – including a dedicated fund for 22,000 women entrepreneurs in Madagascar.

With the digital economy gaining momentum across Africa, AXIAN and the African Development Bank are convinced that technology is a key tool in strengthening the financial system and ensuring women entrepreneurs have the necessary tools, capital and skills to create sustainable businesses and generate jobs.

AXIAN is a pan-African infrastructure and services group with 21 countries, and which focuses on five sectors with strong growth potential: energy, digibank & fintech, real estate, financial services, telecoms. AXIAN is present in the countries where it operates with more than 9,200 employees, each eager and passionate to contribute to the socio-economic change of the territories, by guaranteeing the positive impact of its operations wherever and whenever possible. AXIAN Group is a member of the United Nations Global Compact Initiative and will embed the principles in our current and future strategies.