Tonga Expands Finance Access for Women Entrepreneurs

Tonga is taking steps to improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs as limited credit, collateral requirements and gaps in business support continue to constrain the growth of women-owned and women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $9 million grant in December 2025 for the Women Entrepreneurs Leveraging Innovative Finance in Tonga Project, known as WE-LIFT. The initiative aims to expand credit access and strengthen the business, financial and digital capabilities of women entrepreneurs across the country.

Women entrepreneurs in Tonga face several barriers when seeking commercial finance. Many have limited access to acceptable collateral because of restrictions and challenges associated with land ownership. High levels of informality and limited access to business development services can also make it difficult for women-owned enterprises to meet conventional lending requirements and demonstrate their ability to repay loans.

Key Highlights:

• Tonga is expanding financial access for women entrepreneurs
• The WE-LIFT project will help women overcome financing barriers
• The project will strengthen women’s skills and support business growth

The new project supported by ADB is aimed at empowering women businesses to transcend these limitations. One of the main features will be Tonga's first risk-sharing facility, which will offer partial credit guarantees to remove the collateral hurdle and incentivize banks to make credit available to women entrepreneurs. The project will also create an enablement fund, which will offer grants to support informal micro and small businesses to make them bankable.

Support for business development will also be an important component of the work. Women entrepreneurs are proposed to be provided with dedicated support and guidance through a business advisory hub which will help them enhance their financial, digital and business management skills. The project will aim to increase access to support for women and enhance the financial and growth capacity of enterprises.

The project is in line with the key priority areas of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2023-2027, Tonga, which include improving financial access, increasing the access of MSMEs to finance, and strengthening responsible digital financial services and enhancing financial capability. The strategy also emphasizes the need to increase financial services in remote locations and to build the trust of consumers in the formal financial system.

Tonga is already making strides towards improving its financial infrastructure. More than 12,500 security interests have been registered over movable property in the country, which facilitates the use of movable property as security for loans. Even so, for small companies that do not have a lot of assets or formal financial statements, an improved access to finance is still crucial.

Through the WE-LIFT project, it is hoped that the relationship between women entrepreneurs and financial institutions will be reinforced and development of more inclusive financial products would be supported. The project would remove blocking factors and make business more prepared for a sustainable business growth, which may enable more women entrepreneurs to progress from micro to sustainable business.

Financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs is important for Tonga's overall private sector development. If women entrepreneurs and MSMEs were able to access relevant credit, business support and digital financial services they can invest, grow their businesses, build their resilience and contribute to employment and economic activity.