WfWI Launches $5M Fund for Women Entrepreneurs

A non-governmental women support organization Women for Women International (WfWI) is introducing a gender lens blended finance initiative called Ziza Social Investing that will make it easier for small-scale, women-led businesses to obtain loans in former conflict zones.

Ziza will start by making loans through microfinance institutions to women in Rwanda, where Ziza has many existing sources of funding for community-based agriculture, via a self-sustaining loan fund model, using up to $5m (€4.3m).

The pilot program is followed by the plan to be expanded to other conflict hit markets like Iraq and Nigeria.

It is intended to overcome the lack of formal finance available to enable women entrepreneurs to expand their business, as only 2% of investment capital is directed towards women entrepreneurs around the world. In post conflict countries including Rwanda, women entrepreneurs' small businesses form the backbone of trade and the reconstruction of communities and are essential to economic stability.

The aim is to show that investing in women entrepreneurs in fragile settings should not be regarded just as a social imperative, but also as an economic opportunity, according to Thelma Ekiyor, international CEO at WfWI. It was the organization’s history of getting into the communities of these regions where they would be needed which put it in a unique position, she told Impact Investor.

“Before I came to Women for Women, I ran an impact investing fund, and the challenge there was always where to find a ready pipeline that could absorb our capital. That’s never the problem at Women for Women and that’s why we can scale – our data, our pipeline, our networks, they are our biggest assets,” she said.

It was established in 1993 when the organization first came to the aid of women who were suffering in the Balkans during the war, and has since grown to assist women as they rebuild their lives and communities in conflict areas around Africa and the Middle East. The NGO, based in Washington, has helped establish 600,000 women via its Stronger Women, Stronger Nations program in Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) networks and women-led cooperatives.

Key Highlights:

• $5M fund by Women for Women International to support women entrepreneurs
• First launched in Rwanda via small loans through microfinance groups
• Plan to expand to Iraq and Nigeria with training and financial support

The governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), global companies, foundations and high-profile individuals are among those who support WfWI. Further support will be sought from DFIs and other backers to expand Ziza Social Investing to other countries, particularly Rwanda.

Rwanda was the obvious choice as the organization had already had a locally established platform, with a Women's Opportunity Centre in the west of the country to support women entrepreneurship, which includes cooperatives, and close collaboration with the VSLAs, to name but a few.

“I was recently in Rwanda, and some of the women we worked with said to me, ‘When you started working with us as a cooperative, you gave us $200 each. Today we have $50,000 in the bank, and I thought: ‘this is the key – breaking women out of poverty. You can do all the training and meetings in the world, but if women in conflict zones don’t have economic independence, you can’t change anything,” she said.

The loan model is being structured to avoid the local market becoming over-dependent on support from Women for Women and avoid the risk of failure if the organization’s support is absent. The focus is not on giving loans to a new institution but channeling loans to existing VSLAs and microfinance organizations that can take that amount of loan amount. These intermediaries will then be able to lend on to end borrowers for longer term loans at comparatively lower rates than would otherwise be available.

The goal is to provide loans of $500-$1,000 to individual women at an annual interest rate of approximately 4% for a maximum of three years in Rwanda. The Ziza Social Investing vehicle will be expected to expand on the lending done by existing Women to Women in the country for activities like coffee, greenhouse cultivation and dairy.

Ekiyor cited the work of the organization in supporting women intermediaries in the dairy sector who borrow from the organization to begin purchasing milk from small scale farmers, combining the milk in the village and then selling to supermarkets and stores.

“It is already operating, so we’re just going to lend into that process, instead of creating a new one,” she said.

The first loans to Rwandan borrowers are to be made early in 2027. In addition to the loans, Ziza Social Investing also provides a capacity building technical assistance (TA) element at the local lending institutions financed by the vehicle, with the support of a grant fund.

In addition, there is also support to help educate women on how they can use mobile phones as a tool for business and WfWI are being supported by Luminate – the family foundation of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar – to undertake a consultation on the role that digitization and artificial intelligence can play in assisting women in fragile communities.

The vehicle was officially launched 5 June at a private-sector roundtable on Women’s Economic Independence, AI & Digitization in Africa, held in Johannesburg.