Digital Finance Moves to Close the Gap for Africa's Women-led SMEs
29 October 2026
A new initiative led by the African Development Bank and financial group AXIAN aims to deliver digital lending and financial products to 34,000 women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal. The program will use mobile money, digital lending solutions and alternative credit assessment to reach businesses historically underserved by conventional finance, according to an announcement by EcoFin Agency.
This partnership exemplifies a growing focus on how fintech and digital financial products, if designed inclusively, can help close the persistent gap in financing access facing women-led SMEs in emerging markets. Entrepreneurs with limited collateral, constrained mobility and lack of connectivity have struggled to efficiently access credit and other financial services traditionally delivered through physical branches and long-form applications.
In the 2025 G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) Action Plan for MSME finance, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimated that the overall MSME financing gap stood at 19% of emerging market and developing economy GDP in 2019. Though data on the financing gap for women-led businesses specifically is limited, GPFI described how fintech and digital solutions could expand access through tools like mobile money, alternative credit scoring and simplified digital payment and deposit mechanisms. The GPFI report also highlighted financial literacy and capacity building as a critical piece of these solutions.
Guided by reports from groups like the World Bank on the promise of fintech to improve MSME financing, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and AXIAN plan to use Moixx and MVola — financial platforms with longstanding reach and local operating expertise in the three project countries. Women-owned MSMEs will be able to access the lending and accompanying support through digital channels designed to be quick, flexible and convenient, according to the EcoFin Agency announcement.
The World Bank’s Digital for Women series notes that women entrepreneurs in many emerging markets often face serious barriers that fintech solutions can help overcome. In a 2024 report, Women’s World Banking said digital financial services can break barriers by reducing access costs, making payment and credit work on mobile platforms that time-constrained customers can access. A 2023 World Bank study of Mexico found that MSMEs that accessed digital funding saw higher sales, with the impact magnified for women-owned firms, where two-year growth was 41.9% higher compared with benchmarks.
The World Bank Fintech for Women report, published in 2021, noted however that digital finance for women and MSMEs can create risks of over-indebtedness and digital exclusion if designed poorly. These concerns are echoed in the GPFI MSME Action Plan, which asks regulators and providers to be vigilant around cybersecurity, data privacy, and consumer protection. According to Women’s World Banking, digital tools are most powerful when joined with training and mentorship that build capabilities in digital financial use.
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Initiatives like the AfDB and AXIAN project are not limited to Africa. In a 2025 study, IFC and Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women partnership estimated it unlocked USD 3.17 billion in investments for over 267,000 women entrepreneurs in 59 countries — and noted that the funds were dispersed through financial institutions using blended finance tools and risk-sharing mechanisms.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in 2025 awarded its Women MSME Fintech Innovation Fund to projects including a crowdfunding platform for women farmers, an online platform connecting suppliers of women-led goods and services, and a financial services partnership to reach more women in Indonesia.
In a 2026 study, the Inter-American Development Bank estimated that 2025 GDP growth in Latin America and the Caribbean was driven by digital finance partnerships that helped bring more services to women-led microenterprise owners.
Though digital financing has the potential to unlock growth, MSME lending remains very risky and World Bank cautions against over-extending credit through fintech without care for safe business performance. Women-owned firms may have found a promising channel to access capital — and will need to ensure they can secure safe, affordable loans.