Nigeria is witnessing a profound structural shift driven by women-led enterprises, which represent one of the country’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial cohorts. With 83 per cent of Nigerian women identifying as entrepreneurs—one of the highest rates globally—the potential for growth is immense. However, this high participation rate masks a persistent and economically damaging funding imbalance.
The 2025 Women in Business Initiative (WIBI) Summit, hosted by FSDH Merchant Bank in Lagos, tackled this critical issue, framed by the African Development Bank’s estimate of a staggering billion gender financing gap across Africa.
The Constraint on Growth
Despite demonstrating resilience amidst inflation and credit tightening, women-owned firms in Nigeria struggle for formal support. Only about 23 per cent of these businesses have access to formal MSME credit. Economists are increasingly framing this finance gap not as a social issue, but as a severe constraint on macroeconomic growth, potentially limiting Nigeria’s GDP from rising by as much as 23 per cent if gender gaps were closed.
The structural barriers that deter lenders include:
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Conservative credit risk models.
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Onerous collateral requirements.
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Limited access to financial networks.
WIBI’s Three-Pillar Solution
FSDH’s WIBI is designed to overcome these barriers using a structured, five-year platform that combines three essential pillars: Credit, Partnerships, and Capacity Building.
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Targeted Credit: Since inception, FSDH has disbursed over billion (approx. million) in financing. This includes long-term loans, working capital lines, and collateral-light products specifically designed for firms without fixed assets.
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Risk-Sharing Partnerships: Crucially, much of this lending is enabled through blended finance structures and risk-sharing with international institutions like the Bank of Industry, IFC-backed programs, and the AFAWA guarantee framework. These partnerships reduce downside risk, allowing the bank to extend credit to growth-oriented, early-stage enterprises typically excluded from conventional lending.
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Capability Investment: Recognizing that “capital alone does not scale businesses,” WIBI has also trained more than 500 women-led SMEs in areas like financial literacy, governance, and investor readiness, with over 2,000 participants engaging through various programs.
A Spotlight on the Creative Economy
A significant focus at the 2025 summit was the Creative Economy, a billion-plus sector where women are central. Given that traditional lenders view this sector as high-risk due to irregular cash flows, keynote speaker Joke Silva called for sector-specific financial products that recognize the creative economy as a serious employment and export engine.
Ultimately, initiatives like WIBI argue that gender-intentional finance is not about niche inclusion; it is about deploying capital with discipline to maximize returns, ensuring the financial system evolves quickly enough to support the productive segment that is essential for Nigeria’s long-term economic competitiveness and resilience.
