African Guarantee Fund (AGF) has qualified as a 2X Challenge Investment . The 2X Challenge Investment accreditation was gained by the AGF through having more than 30% female inclusivity in senior management, over 40% female inclusivity under AGF employment and purposing to support women-owned and women-led businesses through one of their Guarantee Initiatives – AFAWA G4G ,Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa – Guarantee for Growth, that addresses the constraints women entrepreneurs face in Africa.
This follows AGF’s longstanding commitment to be the leading non-bank financial institution meeting Africa’s SMEs financing needs, and more so it’s additional focus on unlocking access to finance for women entrepreneurs. Women are the backbone of both the African community and the African economy, yet they face the largest financing gap. Female entrepreneurs face several challenges including a high lending risk, prohibitive interest rates, lack of collateral, participative hindrances posed by the current legal and regulatory frameworks in place, as well as the low affinity of financial institutions to appropriately respond to the African entrepreneurs needs.
The AFAWA G4G initiative bridges the finance gap for the African female entrepreneur by leveraging the Banks financial instruments thus increasing lending to women, offering technical assistance through advisory services to these lending institutions, as well as engaging with African governments and key stakeholders to offer support and help bring down the barriers impeding the success of female-owned and female-led businesses.
AFAWA is a $300 million risk sharing instrument that seeks to unlock $3 billion in credit for female-owned and female-led businesses offered through a network of commercial banks and micro finance institutions.
AFAWA additionally empowers the African female entrepreneur through a rating system incorporated through the African development Bank that evaluates financial institutions based on their share and quality of lending to women. This rating system ensures the top institutions receive preferential financing terms from the AfDB.
African Guarantee Fund (AGF) is a non-bank financial institution whose objective is to promote economic development, increase employment and reduce poverty in Africa by providing financial institutions with guarantee products and capacity development assistance specifically intended to support SMEs in Africa. AGF’s guarantee products are utilized in over 40 African countries. Our Green Finance guarantee analyses existing opportunities and proposes solutions aimed at unlocking financing for SMEs investing in sustainable green developmental projects and initiatives in Africa.
African Guarantee Fund was founded in 2011 by the government of Denmark through the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the government of Spain through the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Other shareholders include the French Development Agency (AFD), Nordic Development Fund (NDF), Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) and KfW Development Bank (KfW).