Even with countless empowerment programs, policy statements, and international pledges, the gender gap in financial access is still as stubborn as ever. 

In fact, according to the World Bank, women in sub-Saharan Africa are 20% less likely than men to have a bank account. Meanwhile, gender bonds—seen as an indispensable financial tool—are struggling to scale, leaving many to wonder: are we making real progress, or just perfecting the art of well-intentioned rhetoric?

At the Gender Bonds Toolkit Dissemination Workshop hosted by FSD Africa in partnership with UN Women, Techeconomy sat down with Ms. Beatrice Eyong, UN Women’s Country Representative in Nigeria, to cut through the noise. 

She shared unfiltered insights into the roadblocks hindering gender-focused financial solutions, the role of UN Women in policy advocacy, and the real steps needed to ensure financial equity isn’t just a buzzword but a reality for women in Africa’s underserved communities.

Challenges in Scaling Gender-Focused Financial Solutions in Africa

TE: Several initiatives have been launched to empower women and bridge the gender gap, but the difference is still wide. What are the biggest challenges in scaling gender-focused financial solutions across Africa? What are we overlooking that continues to widen the gap?

BE: One of the primary challenges is that certain individuals fail to recognise that there’s a gap. Some people do not fully understand the persistence of gender inequalities, which are deeply entrenched in our traditions and cultures, where women are often not regarded as economic actors. Instead, they are frequently viewed as consumers rather than contributors to economic development.

Cultural and traditional norms hinder women’s involvement in business. In some regions—though I cannot speak specifically for Nigeria—it may require a woman’s husband’s consent to open a bank account, and to access a loan, she may need the approval of a male relative, such as her father, husband, or elder brother.

Again, the criteria for accessing loans are often tied to land ownership, an asset that women typically have limited access and control over. As a result, women are unable to independently manage land resources or make decisions about their use of land. This emphasises the need for transformative, innovative financial systems, mechanisms, and procedures to help women overcome these obstacles.

Even within financial institutions, women are often seen as small-scale or micro-business owners, rather than major economic players. However, the work we’ve been doing for years is now paying off, as even banks and financial institutions are beginning to recognise the gap and the obstacles. They are increasingly recognising that supporting women is not merely an act of charity but an essential business imperative.

If we want to be truly effective in all sectors of economic development, it is crucial to involve women. They bring unique perspectives, expertise, and management strategies. Thus, these obstacles are deeply rooted in how society perceives women, and that is what we are working to change.

How UN Women Influence Policies for Gender Equality

TE: How has UN Women been able to influence policies aimed at advancing gender equality, particularly in Africa, where there are cultural and systemic barriers?

BE: We have three main approaches:

1. Strengthening Normative Frameworks – These are the global, continental, and regional legal frameworks that establish the standard for gender equality. You must have heard of conventions, resolutions, treaties, and judicial texts.

Nigeria, for example, has ratified 75% of these frameworks. The problem is domestication—that is, ensuring these frameworks are implemented at the national and state levels. Even when a policy is accepted at the federal level, each state must also adopt it independently. Some states say, “No, we don’t want to do this,” while others proceed with implementation.

A clear example of this is the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act. Although it was passed at the Federal level, advocacy efforts at the state level were still necessary. This involved engaging with Governors and collaborating with various organisations to facilitate the adoption of the Act.

Additionally, even when policies are established, there may be a lack of awareness among the public about their rights, and the individuals responsible for implementing these policies may not fully understand their duties. Therefore, a significant portion of our work is focused on raising awareness, sensitising communities, and building the capacity of key stakeholders to ensure that gender equality policies are effectively enforced.

2. Coordinating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – Many organisations and institutions work on gender equality, but usually in silos, leading to duplication of efforts and inefficient use of resources.

We coordinate efforts at different levels:

• Within the UN system to hold ourselves accountable
• Among development partners, ensuring they align their efforts
• At thematic levels, focusing on economic empowerment, gender-based violence, women in politics, and financial inclusion
• At the state level, we have set up 36 coordination mechanisms to ensure gender equality work is sustained beyond Abuja.

Through this coordination, we advocate for increased women’s representation, better funding, and stronger policies. Some Governors have responded positively, even doubling budget allocations for gender initiatives, though we still face challenges in the actual disbursement of funds.

3. Implementing Operational Mandates – We run programs directly on the ground. Sometimes we take catalytic actions to demonstrate what is possible, and other times we scale up existing solutions.

• We work on women’s participation in governance and leadership, ensuring women benefit from and contribute to governance at all levels.
• We focus on economic empowerment, mobilising financing for gender equality, supporting women entrepreneurs, and pushing for affirmative procurement policies. In Kaduna and Lagos, for instance, our advocacy led to 30% of public contracts being allocated to women entrepreneurs.
• We tackle gender-based violence, which is often underestimated but has serious economic implications. Studies show that 30% of Nigerian women report experiencing gender-based violence, affecting productivity and economic growth.
• We work in women, peace, and security, ensuring that women’s concerns are integrated into humanitarian response plans, particularly since 70-80% of displaced persons are women and children.

Ensuring Tangible and Long-Term Impact for Women in Underserved Communities

TE: How do you ensure that investments in gender-focused initiatives become tangible and long-term improvements for women and children, especially in underserved communities?

BE: We invest in what we call One-Stop Centres. These centres bring together different UN agencies and local actors to provide holistic, integrated support for victims of gender-based violence.

Through these centres, women can access:

• Psychosocial support to help them recover emotionally and mentally
• Legal referrals to ensure they receive justice
• Medical services for physical recovery
• Economic empowerment programs to help them rebuild their lives

UN Women also works to combat stigma, which often prevents survivors from speaking out or seeking help. Stigma should not be on the women—it should be on the perpetrators. Women should not be shamed for what they have endured.

Beyond direct services, we focus on policy advocacy and capacity-building to ensure that gender-sensitive approaches become embedded in governance, economic planning, and humanitarian responses. This is how we can create sustainable and meaningful change.

Final Thoughts

Hence, achieving true financial inclusion for women in Africa demands more than well-meaning discussions and policy statements—it requires systemic implementation. 

While gender bonds and financial programs can help, they must be backed by structural reforms, stronger policy implementation, and a focus on societal perceptions about women’s economic roles. 

According to Ms. Beatrice Eyong, empowering women is not a charitable act. Until financial systems are genuinely inclusive, women will remain marginalised, waiting for the opportunity to participate in the game (economic systems) they rightfully deserve to play. 

Nevertheless, only 18% of available funding reaches women-owned businesses, and female entrepreneurs receive just 58% of the loan value their male counterparts secure. 

These statistics are the foundation for the Gender Bonds Toolkit Dissemination Workshop, hosted by FSD Africa in partnership with UN Women, which kicked off on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Lagos.

Tokunboh Ishmael, CFA, managing director and co-founder of Alitheia Capital, presented a keynote that stressed the economic imperative of gender-smart financing. 

“Investing in the women economy and being intentional about investing in female founders is not just a moral obligation but an economic imperative,” she said. 

Ishmael revealed that her organisation’s Gender Lens Fund, launched in 2014, has invested over 70% of its capital into women-led businesses, creating nearly 10 million jobs and providing essential goods and services to over 50 million women and girls.

Likening a football team playing with seven players, rather than the full team, to excluding 50% of Africa’s population from economic participation, she said; “You’d have to be really good to win.”

“In Africa, we lose at least 13% of our GDP annually because over 50% of small businesses cannot access significant funding,” Ishmael said. “Gender parity, under current trends, will take five generations to achieve,” Ishmael said.

The workshop, which brought together financial institutions, policymakers, and development organisations, was a launch of the Africa Gender Bond Toolkit, a guide for issuing bonds designed to empower women and bridge the financial inclusion gender gap.

Adeola Ukoha, coverage manager for Nigeria at British International Investment (BII), emphasised the indispensable part gender inclusion has to play in economic growth. 

“Economies grow when we are inclusive of all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or income level,” she said, adding that BII’s gender finance strategy focuses on increasing women’s participation in the private sector through ownership, leadership, and workforce representation.

In gender finance, BII has adopted innovative investment approaches. “In 2021, we launched our directed lending approach to intentionally target women-led and owned small and medium enterprises,” Ukoha explained. 

BII has also pioneered the use of guarantees, bonds, and blended finance structures to mitigate perceived risks and expand women’s access to financing.

The Power of Gender Bonds

UN Women’s Nigeria Country Representative, Beatrice Eyong, outlined the need for gender-focused financial mechanisms, revealing that: “Over 340 million women and girls – 8% of the global female population – will live in extreme poverty by 2030 if current trends continue. Africa, home to 65% of the world’s poor, stands at the heart of this issue.”

Eyong pointed to the success of Tanzania’s Jasiri Bond, the first listed gender bond in sub-Saharan Africa. Introduced in 2022, the bond mobilised $32 million and provided financing to over 3,000 women-owned MSMEs. “Behind the statistics are lives – women, children, and families – whose suffering demands urgent action,” she stated.

The new toolkit aims to replicate such successes across Africa by providing guidance for issuing gender bonds. It builds on a growing global trend where by the end of 2023, 360 gender bonds had been issued globally, a commendable climb from just 49 in 2020.

The Role of Collaboration

The workshop also highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration. Sally Woolhouse, head of Economic Development, Climate and Energy at FCDO Nigeria, said “It’s beneficial to have regulators, the public sector, and the private sector convene in the same room. This promotes deliberate discussion across the ecosystem,” she said.

Similarly, Eyong stressed the importance of partnerships in promoting women’s economic empowerment. “If we can’t achieve SDG 5 – gender equality – we will never achieve the other Sustainable Development Goals,” she asserted.

Mrs. Oreoluwa Finnih, special adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Investments, noted the importance of gender-focused policies in driving economic growth and social progress. In her address, she said:

“It’s not just about elevating women for the sake of elevation. We know all the data. We have all the statistics, and you would think that because we know the good things that come out of making sure women are financially empowered, we would quickly do what is right, but not necessarily so.”

Mrs. Finnih revealed that Lagos State is set to domesticate the federal government’s Women Empowerment Policy (We Policy) in 2025. This step will go beyond adopting national recommendations to also adapting them to Lagos-specific challenges.

Including policy, the Office of Sustainable Development Goals actively engages communities. She explained:

“We go into communities, speak to women, and educate them about financial inclusion. It’s great to give people money, but what is more important is for them to know how to handle it.”

An aspect of this outreach involves collaboration with the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure women can open bank accounts, a prerequisite for financial inclusion. “A lot of women do not have accounts. Women work, they work, and then they pay their money into other people’s accounts – could be a child, could be a spouse – and often, those funds are not received.”

Lagos State’s SDG agenda aligns with three key pillars: energy transition, climate action, and sustainable development. 

The Africa Gender Bonds Toolkit was first launched in Zambia in June 2024 to ensure gender equality through sustainable finance. It helps in addressing gender differences while promoting innovation and collaboration in financial markets.

UN Women plans to expand the toolkit to include additional resources, such as guidance on gender-responsive climate resilience and care infrastructure financing. “Africa has huge potential for sustainable finance, and we must utilise it to empower women and girls,” Eyong concluded.

“Let us move from awareness to action and ensure these financing approaches make meaningful contributions to women’s empowerment.”

Only 6% of Measurable SDGs Will Be Achieved by 2030 – FSD Africa Highlights at Gender Bonds Workshop

Mary Njuguna, principal specialist, Capital Markets at FSD Africa revealed that only 6% of measurable Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be achieved by 2030. 

Njuguna noted the importance of leveraging capital markets to unlock long-term financing for sustainable development. “Capital markets are where those with long-term capital make it available to those who need it for sustainable development and other long-term objectives,” she explained. 

She pointed out that the reliance on short-term financing mechanisms, such as bank assets, creates a mismatch and leaves economies vulnerable to shocks.

One of the workshop’s key insights was the significant but underutilized pool of private capital in Africa. In 2022, institutional investors in the region held approximately $2.5 trillion in local currency assets, a figure projected to triple by 2040. 

However, much of this capital remains locked in government securities rather than being channelled into productive uses. Njuguna called for “de-risking long-term projects” and creating innovative financing instruments, such as gender bonds, to attract private capital toward development goals.

Nigeria’s capital markets also came under the spotlight, with Njuguna noting the commendable growth of local assets. Pension fund assets, for instance, grew by 89% between 2018 and 2023, while collective investment schemes saw a 96% increase during the same period. Despite this growth, currency fluctuations and high interest rates are highly challenging. 

“Local currency financing is necessary. It reduces risk and the cost of capital, ensuring long-term sustainability,” she noted.

Njuguna further stressed that addressing the gender financing gap is important to Africa’s sustainable development. “There is so much capital needed for our growth as a continent. Public finance will not be enough,” she stated, reiterating the need for capital markets to provide diversified and innovative funding solutions.