AfDB Unveils $61m Financing Support for Female Entrepreneurs in Nigeria

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a $61 million financing package for the Development Bank of Nigeria aimed at expanding access to credit for women-owned and women-led businesses, with a strong focus on agriculture and other underserved sectors of the economy.

According to a statement released by the AfDB on Thursday, the package, approved by the lender’s board combines a $50 million gender-focused line of credit, an $8 million concessional facility under the Agri-Food SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism (ACFM), and a $3 million grant through the bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).

The financing will be deployed through the Development Bank of Nigeria’s (DBN) network of participating financial institutions to support lending to Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), across Africa’s most populous nation.

More than 95% of the funding has been earmarked for women-owned and women-led small businesses, indicating growing efforts by multilateral lenders to narrow the financing gap faced by female entrepreneurs across the continent.

The AfDB said the operation will combine long-term financing, concessional resources, partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to improve access to affordable loans for businesses operating in sectors including agriculture, clean energy and healthcare.

“Women entrepreneurs are one of Nigeria’s greatest economic assets and one of its most underleveraged,” Abdul Kamara, director general of the AfDB’s Nigeria country office, said in the statement. “By working through DBN to reach women-owned businesses in agriculture, clean energy, healthcare, and beyond, we are not just expanding access to credit; the Bank is investing in the engine of Nigeria’s inclusive economic transformation.”

Access to financing remains one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses in Nigeria, particularly those owned by women, despite the sector accounting for a significant share of employment and economic activity. Commercial bank lending rates have remained elevated amid tight monetary policy conditions, making credit increasingly unaffordable for many smaller enterprises.

Development finance institutions have increasingly turned to targeted intervention funds and risk-sharing mechanisms to stimulate lending to women-led businesses, which are often constrained by limited collateral, smaller asset bases and weaker access to formal financial services.

The AfDB said performance-based incentives attached to the AFAWA program are expected to increase the number of women-owned enterprises eligible for financing while expanding the share of women-focused lending within the DBN’s MSME portfolio.

The approval also deepens an existing relationship between the AfDB and the DBN, which the continental lender helped establish through startup equity investments, governance support and long-term financing alongside the Nigerian government and other development partners.

Nigeria has sought to expand financial inclusion and boost support for small businesses as authorities look to diversify the economy beyond oil and address persistently high unemployment and poverty levels. Agriculture remains a major employer in the country, though smaller operators continue to face funding shortages that limit productivity and expansion.

The AfDB said the operation aligns with its 10-year strategy for inclusive growth and private-sector development, as well as Nigeria’s 2025-2030 country strategy framework focused on gender-inclusive and green economic growth.

The lender added that the initiative also supports broader efforts to strengthen entrepreneurship and women’s economic empowerment in Africa’s most populous economy.