The African Development Bank Group and AXIAN Group have launched a major digital finance programme aimed at expanding financial access for more than 34,000 women-led businesses across Africa. Announced on September 2, 2026, the initiative represents one of the latest developments in Africa’s growing effort to make banking and financial services more accessible to women entrepreneurs.
The programme will initially provide tailored digital financial products and services to women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal. At the same time, around 25,000 women across Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Comoros will receive financial literacy, digital skills and entrepreneurship training.
Digital Banking Takes Centre Stage
A key feature of the initiative is its use of AXIAN’s digital financial platforms, Mixx and MVola. The programme will combine digital lending, mobile money, alternative credit assessment and business development support an important shift for women entrepreneurs who have traditionally struggled to meet the requirements of conventional banking systems.
Africa has the world’s highest rate of female entrepreneurship, yet women-owned businesses continue to face an estimated $49 billion financing gap. By using digital transaction data and alternative approaches to assessing creditworthiness, the new programme could help bring more women into the formal financial ecosystem.
A Bigger Role for Banking in Women-Led Growth
Supported through the African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, the programme highlights a broader transformation underway in African banking: financial inclusion is increasingly being viewed not simply as a social objective, but as an economic growth opportunity.
For Africa’s banking sector, the message is becoming increasingly clear. The future of financial growth may depend on institutions that can move beyond traditional lending models and build financial products around the realities of women entrepreneurs. This latest initiative could therefore mark an important step toward a more digitally connected and financially inclusive African economy.
