AXIAN Group and the African Development Bank are joining forces to expand access to digital finance and business support for more than 34,000 women-led businesses across Africa.
The initiative will target women entrepreneurs in Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Comoros, addressing some of the barriers that continue to limit the growth of female-owned businesses, including access to finance, digital skills and business knowledge.
Through AXIAN’s Mixx and MVola digital financial-services platforms, women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal will gain access to digital lending and other financial products.
The programme will also provide 25,000 women across the five participating countries with training in financial literacy, digital skills and entrepreneurship.
Africa has one of the world’s highest rates of female entrepreneurship, but women-owned businesses continue to face significant challenges when trying to access formal finance. The African Development Bank estimates that women entrepreneurs on the continent face a financing gap of about $49 billion.
For many women business owners, the problem is not a lack of entrepreneurial ambition. Limited credit histories, insufficient collateral and exclusion from traditional financial systems can make it difficult to secure the capital needed to expand.
The AXIAN and African Development Bank programme aims to address this gap by using mobile-money transactions, digital lending and alternative credit assessments to reach entrepreneurs who may otherwise be underserved by conventional lenders.
“Across Africa, millions of women are already running successful businesses. The challenge is not entrepreneurship. The challenge is access to finance, to digital tools and to opportunities for growth,” said Erwan Gelebart, chief executive officer of AXIAN Digibank and Fintech.
Digital finance as a pathway to growth
For women running small businesses, access to digital financial services can mean more than simply obtaining a loan. It can provide an opportunity to build financial records, access new markets, manage transactions more efficiently and take steps towards formalising a business.
The programme has five key objectives: expanding digital finance for women-led businesses, strengthening financial and digital literacy, developing financial products tailored to women entrepreneurs, increasing digital inclusion through mobile technology and supporting businesses as they transition into the formal economy.
Implementation will be led by Mixx and MVola together with AXIAN’s local operating companies in the participating countries.
Melissa Basque-Roux, coordinator of the African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, said the partnership would help women entrepreneurs gain greater access to financial services while strengthening their business and digital capabilities.
Building on an existing partnership
The initiative builds on the African Development Bank’s wider relationship with AXIAN Telecom.
In January 2025, the bank approved a $160 million senior corporate loan to support digital connectivity and financial inclusion across nine African countries. Part of that financing was targeted at supporting 22,000 women entrepreneurs in Madagascar.
The latest programme expands that focus, bringing together digital financial services, entrepreneurship training and financial literacy to support women-owned enterprises at different stages of growth.
The partnership is supported through the African Development Bank’s AFAWA initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
For African women entrepreneurs, the significance of the programme goes beyond the number of businesses targeted.
Better access to capital and digital tools can help women grow enterprises, create jobs, strengthen household incomes and participate more fully in Africa’s formal economy.
As more African businesses move online and financial services become increasingly digital, initiatives that deliberately place women entrepreneurs at the centre of financial inclusion could play an important role in closing the continent’s persistent gender financing gap.
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