The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) have announced the expansion of the SheWins Africa program, increasing its reach from 100 to 1,000 women entrepreneurs across Sub-Saharan Africa, following strong results from the first cohort and growing institutional commitment. The announcement was made at the She Wins Africa closing event held in Lagos recently.
The closing ceremony follows encouraging early outcomes, including the mobilisation of more than USD 4 million in financing by participating women-led startups. Over the past year, SheWins Africa supported women-led small and growing businesses across multiple African markets, delivering tangible results in business growth, invest- ment readiness, and access to finance.
Speaking on the impact of the initiative at the event as it scales to reach 1,000 women, Marieme Niang Camara, IFC’s Senior Operations Officer and Regional Gender Hub Lead for Africa, said: “When we started with 100 women entrepreneurs, it was a successful pilot, but we realized that 100 is just the beginning for a region like Africa.
When you look at the impact it created and the kind of access to capital and markets it gave to those women entrepreneurs, you see this is a program worth scaling. Now we are moving from 100 to 1,000, and we’re doing it strategically through segmentation from start ups to growth-stage and scale-up companies.
We are offering tai- lored technical assistance, investment readiness support, and direct access to capital through both funds and IFC-backed banks. This is how we turn pilot success into regional transformation.”
She further stated that participating start-ups collectively raised over USD 4 million, with 17 women-led enterprises successfully accessing external financing, exceeding the program’s initial targets.
During her remarks, Marieme mentioned that the program delivered technical assistance at scale, which includes 123 hours of targeted technical support, 22 start-ups receiving tailored advisory support beyond standard training,
275 investor connections facilitated across regional and international markets, and 100 mentors mobilised across Africa. All these are geared towards strengthening business fundamentals and investor engagement.
