AGF, Visa Foundation Sign $2M Grant for Women Entrepreneurs
TLDR
- The African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and Visa Foundation have signed a $2 million grant agreement to boost financing for women-led and owned SMEs
- The funding will support the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Guarantee for Growth programme
- The grant will help scale AFAWA’s impact, unlocking private capital and creating more opportunities for women-owned businesses
The African Guarantee Fund (AGF) and Visa Foundation have signed a $2 million grant agreement to boost financing for women-led and owned small and medium-sized enterprises across Africa.
The funding will support the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Guarantee for Growth programme, which works to eliminate barriers women face in accessing capital.
AGF CEO Jules Ngankam said the partnership will combine loan guarantees with technical assistance, enabling partner financial institutions to increase lending to women entrepreneurs. “We will be able to build capacity and expand lending at scale, driving job creation and business resilience across the continent,” he said.
Visa Foundation president Graham Macmillan said AGF’s work aligns with Visa’s mission to expand financial inclusion. The grant will help scale AFAWA’s impact, unlocking private capital and creating more opportunities for women-owned businesses.
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Key Takeaways
Women entrepreneurs in Africa face a financing gap of more than $42 billion, according to the African Development Bank. Although women own about a third of all businesses on the continent, they receive less than 10% of available credit. Structural barriers — such as lack of collateral, gender bias in lending, and limited access to networks — continue to restrict their growth. AFAWA, launched by the AfDB, has become one of the most ambitious initiatives to close this gap by providing risk-sharing guarantees to financial institutions while also offering capacity-building support. AGF, as an implementing partner, channels these guarantees to local banks to encourage them to lend more to women. The new $2 million grant from Visa Foundation strengthens this pipeline, allowing AGF to de-risk loans and scale support more widely. If successful, the partnership could help accelerate women’s contribution to Africa’s GDP and promote broader financial inclusion.
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