IFC Expands She Wins Africa Programme for Womenpreneurs

• The International Finance Corporation and the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative made an announcement about the expansion of the She Wins Africa initiative
• The initiative targets women-led small and growing businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa

The International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank Group, and the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) have announced the extension of the She Wins Africa initiative, which seeks to support women-led small and growing businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In a statement, the two organizations announced that the initiative will now seek to support 1,000 female entrepreneurs, as opposed to the original 100 women that the initiative sought to support.

The extension of the initiative comes after the early results of the initiative were evaluated and showed improvements in access to capital and markets for the supported businesses.

The new phase of the initiative will utilize a segmentation approach, which will seek to support startups, growth-stage, and scale-up businesses.

The first phase of the She Wins Africa initiative identified 100 women-led startups from a large pool of applicants in the region. During this phase, the supported businesses collectively raised over $4 million in external capital.

This was achieved through the use of technical assistance, advisory services, investor engagement, and grants that sought to mitigate investment risk and promote business growth.

The program’s officials also emphasized its significance in the broader economy. Marieme Camara, IFC’s Regional Gender Lead for Africa, said that the outcome of the first phase of the Programme showed its scalability and effectiveness at various levels of business development.

Ubon Udoh, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ASR Africa, added that the expansion is expected to enhance the program’s coverage and contribute to the economic development of the continent as a whole.

She Wins Africa offers technical assistance to help enhance the basis of businesses, such as coaching, investment readiness, personalized advisory services, and matchmaking with investors.

During the first phase of the Programme, it provided 123 hours of systematic technical assistance, made 275 connections between entrepreneurs and investors, and engaged 100 mentors to support the participating entrepreneurs.

Some women-owned businesses in the first phase of the Programme gained access to external funding, while others improved their investment readiness for the future.