The African Women Impact Fund (AWIF), created through a partnership between Standard Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), announced today that it has received a grant from Visa.
The grant will be used to supply the required capital for 55 women who responded to AWIF’s call to action and have been a part of their program since 2020 throughout South, East, and West Africa.
Visa’s contribution to the AWIF is an extension of the She’s Next program, a global advocacy program for women-owned businesses that have been expanded to Sub-Saharan Africa to further champion and support African women business owners as they create, sustain, and progress their enterprises.
Addressing the Issues Faced by Women in the Finance Industry
Women fund managers in Africa continue to face difficulties in building sustainable businesses. Research shows slow progress in the visibility and inclusion of women fund managers due to institutional barriers and investor bias.
Hence, women only make up 7.6% of private equity in Africa and only 7% of venture capital and private equity goes to women-owned enterprises in emerging markets. This fact highlights the massive opportunity women have to close the gender gap. This is further reflected in the less than 1.3% of the $69.1-trillion global financial assets handled by women and people of color.
“The aim of She’s Next is to help women-owned businesses thrive and our ambition with this grant is to enable access in a space where women-owned firms are under-represented. Through this program we aim to ensure that women are not only recipients but become decision-makers where institutional funding for businesses is concerned,” stated Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President & Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa.
Visa Increases Funding to Make a Greater Impact
According to Visa, its funding will be used for initiatives that help business owners develop their technical skill sets, make themselves more attractive to larger institutional investors, and run profitable enterprises that will go on to invest in other small and medium-sized companies.
“The funding will ensure that these business owners are able to focus on growing their enterprises without the burden of managing short-term debt and other operational costs related to building a successful business” explained Diarra.
The grant addresses the following areas of development:
Portfolio management capability
Portfolio structuring, risk management, and administration.
Investment research capability
Identifying investment opportunities, due diligence, mandate alignment, and continuous investment and operations monitoring.
Operational support
Operational and back-office support, human resourcing, systems implementation, and vendor management
“We are elated to have Visa partner with Standard Bank and grateful for their meaningful contribution to the African Women Impact Fund,” Lindeka Dzedze Global Markets Head, Strategic Partnerships at Standard Bank Group also stated.
“The group believes that the economic empowerment of women is essential to raising Africa’s economic output and creating sustainable jobs, especially within the small enterprises that drive growth on the continent,” she concluded.
Join our mailing list to get the latest African tech news and stay up-to-date on African Tech Startups.
