Pan-African banking group Ecobank Transnational Incorporated said on Wednesday its lending to registered women-led businesses surged by 194% in 2025, as gender-focused programmes helped expand entrepreneurship and local economic growth across the continent.
The bank said it extended $780 million in loans to women-led businesses in 2025, up from $265 million in 2024, according to its newly released Ecobank Gender Programme Report, published to mark International Women’s Day.
Women entrepreneurs play a significant role in African economies by creating jobs, supporting households and strengthening local supply chains. However, women-owned businesses across the continent still face a $42 billion financing gap, limiting their ability to scale and invest.
Ecobank said its gender-focused initiatives combine tailored financing with business training, mentoring and access to regional markets to help women build sustainable enterprises.
The bank’s Ellevate programme, launched in November 2020 to support women-led businesses affected by the COVID-19 crisis, has since grown into one of the most geographically expansive women’s banking initiatives in Africa.
According to Ecobank, the programme now supports more than 103,000 registered women entrepreneurs across the continent. After expanding to 26 countries in West, Central, East and Southern Africa in 2025, the initiative enrolled an additional 21,000 women entrepreneurs, while more than 24,000 women received training, mentoring or other non-financial support.
The programme also connects women-owned businesses to cross-border opportunities through the Ecobank Single Market Trade Hub, which allows entrepreneurs to access customers and partners across African markets.
Beyond formal businesses, Ecobank said it is also targeting women operating in the informal economy through its MAMA programme, launched in Ghana in 2024.
The initiative provides subsidised credit, savings products and business guidance to women running small and informal enterprises, many of whom generate regular income but lack the documentation or collateral required by traditional lenders.
Ecobank said the programme has enrolled more than 10,000 women in the informal sector, with over 2,000 women receiving subsidised credit facilities totalling more than $1.8 million since its launch.
To expand financing further, the bank has also turned to capital markets. In March 2025, its Ivorian subsidiary issued the first Gender Bond in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the second in Africa, raising over 11 billion CFA francs (about $18.2 million) in 48 hours, exceeding its initial target.
The funds will help finance nearly 1,200 additional loans to women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in West Africa, the bank said.
“Women entrepreneurs are among the most powerful drivers of local economic growth across Africa, yet many still face barriers to finance that limit their ability to scale,” Ecobank Group Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Awori said in a statement.
He said the growth in lending reflected both strong demand from women entrepreneurs and the impact of initiatives such as the Ellevate programme and the Gender Bond, which aim to mobilise capital specifically for women-led businesses.
Ecobank said it plans to expand the Ellevate programme across all its markets, deepen non-financial support including digital tools and business formalisation pathways, strengthen partnerships with development finance institutions and launch additional financial products designed for women entrepreneurs.
