AXIAN Group and the African Development Bank are launching a program to provide digital finance and business support to more than 34,000 women-led enterprises in five African countries, targeting a funding gap that has long constrained the growth of female-owned businesses.
The initiative will deploy AXIAN’s Mixx and MVola digital financial-services platforms to provide lending and other financial products to women-led micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal.
A second component will provide financial literacy, digital skills and entrepreneurship training to 25,000 women across Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Comoros.
Africa has the world’s highest rate of female entrepreneurship, but women-owned businesses face an estimated $49 billion financing gap, according to the African Development Bank. Many also lack the credit histories and collateral typically required by conventional lenders.
The program will use mobile-money transactions, digital lending and alternative credit assessments to reach businesses that have been underserved by traditional financial institutions.
“Across Africa, millions of women are already running successful businesses. The challenge is not entrepreneurship. The challenge is access to finance, to digital tools and to opportunities for growth,” said Erwan Gelebart, chief executive officer of AXIAN Digibank and Fintech.
The initiative has five main objectives: expanding digital finance for women-led businesses, improving financial and digital literacy, developing products tailored to women entrepreneurs, increasing digital inclusion through mobile technology and helping businesses transition into the formal economy.
Implementation will be led by Mixx and MVola alongside AXIAN’s local operating companies in the participating markets.
The partnership builds on the African Development Bank’s broader relationship with AXIAN Telecom. In January 2025, the bank approved a $160 million senior corporate loan to support digital connectivity and financial inclusion in nine African countries, including financing targeted at 22,000 women entrepreneurs in Madagascar.
The new program reflects a broader shift among African financial-services providers toward digital channels and alternative data as a way to expand credit access beyond traditional banking customers.
For AXIAN, the initiative also gives its mobile-money businesses a larger role in lending and financial inclusion, using existing digital platforms to reach small businesses that can be difficult for conventional banks to serve profitably.
Melissa Basque-Roux, coordinator of the African Development Bank’s AFAWA initiative, said the partnership would expand access to financial services while strengthening the skills and digital capabilities of women entrepreneurs.
The program is supported through the bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
The partners expect improved access to finance and business support to help participating enterprises expand, create jobs and move further into the formal economy.