Africa

The empowerment of women has three core dimensions to it — economic, political and social empowerment.

Economic empowerment of women is arguably central to achieving the latter two. It, therefore, stands to reason that increasing women’s access to economic opportunities by providing them with affordable credit will over time limit and eventually eliminate gender inequalities. Critical to achieving this is supporting women-owned enterprises financially.

Visa, has entered into partnership with Ecobank,  to roll out “mVisa,” an innovative mobile payment service in 33 African markets by year-end. Mvisa enables consumers to pay for goods and services for their everyday expenses from  groceries to  taxi services by simply scanning a QR code on a smart phone or entering a merchant identification number into their feature phones, just as it addresses the need for a convenient, low cost acceptance payments service throughout the continent.

This paper presents evidence on implementation of the World Bank Group and Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening Initiative "Principles for Public Credit Guarantee Schemes for Small and Medium Enterprises". The evidence is based on a self-assessment of 60 schemes in 54 countries. Overall, the results show a fairly decent level of implementation of the Principles, especially in the areas of legal and regulatory framework, mandate and eligibility rules, and claim management process.

The Fidelity SME Forum is a weekly radio programme organised by Fidelity Bank Plc., to educate, inform, advise and inspire budding entrepreneurs in Nigeria, through the provision of skills and expertise needed to build sustainable and successful businesses. After its 150th episode, deputy managing director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mohammed Balarabe, provided valuable insights into the bank’s unique methodology to supporting Nigeria’s burgeoning SME landscape. He shared his thoughts with Blessing Anaro.

By Njuguna Ndung’u, Lydia Ndirangu and Armando Morales

Njuguna Ndung’u is an associate professor of economics at the University of Nairobi and was previously Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya. Lydia Ndirangu is the Head of the Research Centre at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies. Armando Morales is the IMF Resident Representative in Kenya.

This report contains an initial evaluation of the opportunities for spreading financial services through business networks in local communities across sub-Saharan Africa. The central premise is that small, local business that are able to establish a data-rich, trusted relationship with financial institutions can be effective channels for spreading the benefits of financial services indirectly into the communities that they operate in, through their base of customers, employees and suppliers.

Cherie Blair is founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, an organisation she set up in 2008 to help women build small and growing businesses in developing and emerging markets. She spoke to Chika Amanze-Nwachuku during the International Women's Day celebration in Lagos about the barriers facing female entrepreneurs globally, how her foundation helps women grow and expand their businesses, as well as the Road to Growth project, an initiative that has worked with 500 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria to enable them grow sustainable and successful businesses.

Having spent 35 years of her career in the field of communication, publishing and digital media, Melanie Hawken decided to take a different path altogether—harnessing her communications experience to pull the audience of African women entrepreneurs. She founded a women entrepreneurs’ think-tank, ‘Lionesses of Africa’. Within a year, the organisation has managed to reach over 100,000 inspirational women entrepreneurs from across the continent. The target is to assist one million African women entrepreneurs to unlock their business potentials by 2018.