Nigeria boasts one of the world’s most dynamic female entrepreneurial communities, with an astonishing 83 per cent of Nigerian women identifying as business owners, according to a 2025 Mastercard report. This robust participation, spanning manufacturing, tech, and the creative economy, signals major economic change. Yet, it masks a crippling structural flaw: only about 23 per cent of these women-owned firms have access to formal credit, contributing to Africa’s estimated billion gender financing gap.
The 2025 Women in Business Initiative (WIBI) Summit, hosted by FSDH Merchant Bank in Lagos, focused not just on the problem, but on the evolving architecture required to solve it—moving the discussion from gender equity to macroeconomic growth constraint.
Beyond Conventional Lending: The WIBI Model
FSDH’s WIBI, now in its fifth year, has evolved into a comprehensive platform that recognizes that capital alone is insufficient to scale enterprises. Its approach combines three strategic pillars to create truly investable firms:
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Targeted Credit: WIBI has disbursed over billion (approx. million) in financing. This funding includes long-term, flexible loans and collateral-light products specifically designed to accommodate the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lacking fixed assets.
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Risk-Sharing Partnerships: To extend credit to early-stage and growth-oriented businesses typically excluded by conventional models, FSDH employs blended finance structures. Key risk-sharing partnerships with institutions like the Bank of Industry, IFC-backed gender programs, and the AFAWA guarantee framework reduce the bank’s downside risk.
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Capacity Building: The initiative invests heavily in capability, not just credit. Through partnerships with organizations like the Enterprise Development Centre and IFC, WIBI has delivered structured training in financial literacy, corporate governance, and investor readiness. This has enabled over 500 women-led SMEs to complete formal training, transforming high-participation entrepreneurship into bankable, growth-ready enterprises.
Focus on the Creative Economy
A critical area of focus at the summit was the Creative Economy, a billion-plus sector where women are central, yet financing is severely constrained. Traditional lenders view the sector as high-risk due to irregular cash flows. Veteran actress and producer Joke Silva advocated for deeper skills development and financial products tailored specifically to the project-based earnings of creative entrepreneurs, signaling a likely focus for WIBI’s 2026 agenda.
By tackling structural barriers and providing a holistic solution of capital and capacity, WIBI is demonstrating that targeted, disciplined finance is essential not just for social inclusion, but for unlocking Nigeria’s full long-term economic competitiveness.
