Women-led businesses in Africa face a $42 billion financing gap, yet studies consistently show that gender-diverse companies outperform others by at least 20%. If African economies fully embraced inclusivity, GDP could rise by over 13%.

Today, the world marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and it’s necessary to move beyond rhetoric and focus on practical solutions that break long-standing limitations. 

At the Gender Bonds Toolkit Dissemination Workshop organised by FSD Africa, Techeconomy had an insightful conversation with Tokunboh Ishmael, managing director and co-founder of Alitheia Capital. 

She shared her journey in ensuring gender-focused investments, the strategies used to break investor scepticism, and the systemic changes required to promote an inclusive business environment.

Breaking Investor Scepticism on Gender Initiatives

TE: While speaking earlier, you mentioned that it took years to convince investors to support the gender initiative. What strategies were you able to use to break the scepticism behind it or to gain traction for initiatives that address gender-based inequalities?

TI: In the first instance, we showed that there was actually an economic gain and impact from including everybody. When you heard me earlier, I said that everyone should picture their favourite football team playing with just half of the players—were they likely to win? And everybody was like, no, they’re going to lose.

We showed that there was economic potential. The female economy is worth $12 trillion globally. The African economy could have an uplift of over 13% in GDP contribution if we build more inclusive companies and economies. 

At the company level, you have better decision-making at boards, better governance, and better ideas that create products benefiting everyone.

Another key thing we did was launch a Gender Lens Toolkit for investing in companies, showing how, at every stage of the investment process, gender is a factor for success. 

It provides a framework to rate companies from gender-negative to gender-strategic and guides them in developing gender action plans. These plans help businesses diversify their income, increase revenue, and drive down costs.

Research has shown that gender-diverse companies outperform by at least 20%. In showing this and providing practical guidance on gender-smart investing, we were able to convince investors to come along.

Measuring the Impact of Gender-Focused Investments

TE: With over 70% of your fund investors focused on women, what tools or metrics do you use to measure the long-term impact of this investment on local economies and communities?

TI: Just as I mentioned, we track several key areas:

• Female Founders: We intentionally invest in female-led businesses, which is why we can maintain a portfolio where over 70% of our investments go to women.
• Board Representation: In many companies, boards are overwhelmingly male, with women as the minority or even nonexistent. We work on increasing female representation.
• Employment Practices: We assess hiring policies to ensure more high-level jobs are accessible to women.
• Product Inclusion: We ensure that the products developed by these businesses support not just half of the population but the entire population. Being intentional about creating essential products for female consumers is key.

Beyond Funding: Systemic Changes to Support Women in Business

TE: You mentioned the $42 billion financing gap for women-led businesses in Africa. Beyond funding, what systemic changes or policies do you believe are essential to creating an enabling environment for women?

TI: First of all, we need intentionality—both in investment and policymaking. We need policies ensuring that capital allocation isn’t overwhelmingly skewed toward men. There must be diversity at the investment allocation stage, meaning pension funds, insurance companies, and other investors must actively consider female-led businesses.

Why? Because you know what you know—if investors don’t have diverse perspectives, they won’t naturally identify opportunities that target women.

So, for me, the key elements are:

• Intentionality in investment decisions.
• Diverse allocation of capital at the funding stage.
• A clear goal to ensure Africa reaches its full economic potential through inclusive investing.

Again, the enabling business environment plays a huge role. It’s not just about injecting money into businesses; it’s also about ensuring lower costs of doing business, improved infrastructure, and overall business-friendly policies. 

Most SMEs in Africa are led by women, so when we talk about creating a better ecosystem, we are indirectly supporting these women-led businesses.

Solving the Root Cause of Gender Inequality

TE: Many organisations have launched initiatives to bridge gender inequality, yet the gap remains wide. What is the root problem that we need to address?

TI: Money makes the world go round, and we need to move beyond lip service when it comes to capital allocation.

The gender financing gap amounts to billions of dollars. Our fund is just $100 million, which is a drop in the ocean compared to the need.

If we continue prioritising only short-term, high-gain investments, then we’re not serious about sustainable development. Leaders in Nigeria and Africa must put their money where their mouth is.

When leaders talk about Nigeria being a tough place to invest, they should realise that they have the power to change that narrative. Investment in sustainable growth means investing in:

• The future of every African,
• The future of every Nigerian,
• And creating an environment where every citizen can reach their full potential.

Our conversation with Tokunboh Ishmael stressed the need to ensure financial access for female-led businesses. Bridging the gender gap has become an economic necessity. 

Today we celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and it’s time to stop treating gender inclusion as a side issue and recognise it as the foundation for long-term prosperity.

The post International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Tokunboh Ishmael on Why $42B Gender Gap is Holding Africa Back appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

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.

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Under his leadership, IIF will deepen its influence in shaping the country’s impact investment landscape, fostering collaboration among stakeholders, and championing innovative solutions that address Nigeria’s most critical challenges.

Mr. Aigbogun brings several years of exceptional leadership, management, influence and significant contributions to advancing and promoting impact investing in the media space.

He started his career as a journalist and later became the publisher of BusinessDay newspaper, which he co-founded in 2001.

He began his journalism career at The Guardian newspaper and moved on to Vanguard newspaper where he rose to the position of editor of all the titles of the newspaper.

He served for many years as the Lagos correspondent of the Associated Press, AP. Mr. Aigbogun holds a degree in Mass Communication and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School.

Mr. Aigbogun was a member of the Vision 2010, assigned by the government to formulate a long-term economic vision for Nigeria. Notably, he served as the alternate rapporteur for the sub-committee on competition and deregulation. He has also served on the governing board of Nigeria’s National Competitiveness Council.

Commenting on his appointment, Aigbogun, said,

“This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to shaping the trajectory of impact investing at a time when investments that deliver meaningful and measurable change for Nigeria have become even more paramount. As one driven by continuous growth and innovation, I firmly believe that through collaborative efforts, we can achieve meaningful progress within our industry.”

The Nigerian National Advisory Board on Impact Investing (NABII), an advisory board under IIF, is equally delighted to welcome two prominent industry leaders.

Tokunboh Ishmael, managing director and co-founder of Alitheia Capital, and Gbenga Hassan, managing partner at Argentil Capital, join NABII with their wealth of experience and expertise in Impact Investing, Gender Lens Investing, Fund Management, Venture Capital and Private Equity.

As the Chair of IIF, Aigbogun also joined the NABII as Vice Chair of the Advisory Board. Their addition underscores NABII’s commitment to harnessing exceptional talent to accelerate the growth of Nigeria’s impact investment ecosystem.

Ishmael said,

“Joining NABII provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the scaling of impactful solutions that address societal challenges while driving economic growth. I look forward to working with this dynamic team to advance our shared vision.”

Hassan added,

“Impact investing holds the power to unlock Nigeria’s potential and create lasting value. I am excited to join NABII in its mission to mobilise capital and inspire action for sustainable development.”

Ishmael is a renowned advocate and pioneer of impact, fintech, and gender lens investing. Over the past two decades, she has been a leader in creating innovative financial solutions that address systemic inequalities to achieve inclusive and shared prosperity.

As Manager Director and Co-Founder of Alitheia Capital, a female-led private equity firm that embodies the philosophy ‘profit with purpose’, she is a leader in the mainstreaming of impact investing within the private equity asset class.

Ishmael also co-founded Alitheia IDF where she raised over $100 million, establishing the first and largest Gender Lens fund to invest in female-led businesses across Africa. Some of the companies where she has invested are already changing and redefining their sector.

Prior to founding Alitheia Capital, Ishmael worked at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street, New York, where she conducted over $5 billion in M&A transactions.

She also previously led the establishment of the private equity firm, Aureos Capital, in West Africa and the development of Avante Capital where she led M&A activity for the Ocean and Oil group. Her extensive experience in fund management and investment strategy makes her an invaluable asset to NABII.

Hassan brings over two decades of leadership in venture capital, private equity, and financial services. As Managing Partner and co-founder at Argentil Capital, he has led transformative investments across sectors, driving sustainable growth and innovation.

His expertise in structuring deals and managing portfolios will play a key role in advancing NABII’s objectives.

He has led key investments including Sygen Pharmaceuticals and First Modular Gas Systems Limited and Àrgentil’s investments into two fund managers and early-stage investments.

Previously, Gbenga was responsible for identifying, originating, and executing private equity transactions in West Africa at Aureos Capital, specialising in deal structuring, valuation, and portfolio management. He also worked with Standard Bank London and Stanbic Bank Nigeria in various corporate and project finance roles.

Etemore Glover, CEO of Impact Investors Foundation, said, “Given the new board members’ impressive careers championing sustainable investment and driving transformative change, I am confident that their diverse and extensive skillsets, combined with their vast experience in industry will play a pivotal role in helping to steer the direction of the foundation.”

Under the guidance of Aigbogun and with the strategic expertise of Ishmael and Hassan, IIF and NABII are well-positioned to drive impactful investments, foster economic empowerment, and promote sustainable development in Nigeria.

These appointments reflect a shared commitment to shaping a thriving impact economy and unlocking new opportunities for growth and resilience.

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The Jetstream Africa affirms to have processed over $42 million, with $7 million disbursed. Its services include logistics, financing, and visibility for tracking at every step of the process.

The e-logistics Ghanaian startup operates across 12 African countries including Nigeria and Egypt, with businesses being able to book and monitor door-to-door logistics, financing, insurance and other trade support services digitally.

Investors in the round were French development institution Proparco through the Digital Africa Bridge Fund, ASC VC, Octerra, Cauris, Senegal’s Wuri Ventures, Seed9, The MBA Fund, W Fund and family offices. Existing investors were Alitheia IDF and Golden Palm.

Cauris provided the debt funding, while Octerra, Wuri Ventures, Seed9, The MBA Fund, French development institution Proparco, ASC VC, Alitheia IDF, and Golden Palm made the equity investment.

The funds will be used for Jetstream Africa’s expansion into new countries and the continued development of its technology platform, which vertically aggregates the fragmented financing and logistics vendors that support trade across the continent’s 54 countries.

Miishe Addy, Co-founder and CEO of Jetstream Africa said: “With this funding round, we are excited to use our technology to reflect our customers’ data back to them in the form of business insights, so they can trade more profitably.”

“The population of Africa is bigger than its production capacity. That’s created a $50+ billion trade gap. At Jetstream we aim to help regional companies grow their supply chains faster, and close that gap themselves.”

Tokunboh Ishmael, Co-founder and Principal Partner at Alitheia IDF, said the round supports Jetstream’s expansion to new markets which capitalizes on trade policies like AfCFTA, enabling richer inter-continental trade which is needed to support inclusive economic development and unleash the continent’s full potential.

Babacar Seck, Senior Investment Officer for Venture Capital at Proparco, said Jetstream had demonstrated its ability to build innovative solutions to boost Africa’s trade competitiveness, helping solve one of the continent’s major challenges. 

“As a long-term investor in Africa’s development, we support Jetstream’s mission and look forward to supporting its growth across the continent,” he said.

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