Ecobank earmarks $2.6bn for women, agribusiness lending

Ecobank Group has set ambitious lending targets of $2.6 billion by 2030 for women-led businesses and agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises across Africa. This expansion aims to address the persistent credit access challenges faced by these sectors. The targets were unveiled at the Ecobank@40 Media Conference in Lomé, Togo, marking the culmination of the bank's 40th-anniversary programming.

Ecobank CEO Jeremy Awori emphasized that the financing will support women entrepreneurs and agricultural value chains, integral to its growth strategy across Africa. Currently operating in 34 sub-Saharan African countries and serving over 32 million customers, Ecobank plans to register 400,000 formal women-led businesses by 2030, up from 110,000 supported thus far.

Through the expanded Ellevate programme, Ecobank intends to provide digital onboarding and financial inclusion initiatives, potentially opening financing pathways for up to one million female micro-entrepreneurs. Credit under the programme will encompass unsecured and partially secured facilities, supported by guarantee arrangements with development finance institutions.

Ecobank's new lending targets focus on agribusiness, education, and healthcare sectors. The bank cites a $42 billion financing gap for women entrepreneurs across Africa and has partnered with development institutions to leverage guarantees, concessional finance, and risk-sharing structures. Ecobank's $600 million target for the agricultural sector aims to cover the entire value chain, targeting farmers, aggregators, processors, logistics companies, traders, and exporters.

The strategy emphasizes climate-smart farming, digital payments, and structured trade finance to enhance financing across production, processing, and distribution, while supporting regional food markets. Ecobank has already expanded its agricultural financing partnerships this year, signing agreements with AGRA and Proparco to promote sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural value chains and provide funding support for agribusiness SMEs and smallholder farmers in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Kenya.

The $2.6 billion lending targets will also leverage Ecobank's Single Market Trade Hub, a digital marketplace connecting over 60,000 businesses, and its pan-African payment infrastructure to support multi-currency transactions. Ecobank's implementation plan combines expanded credit, de-risking, cross-border trade, digitalization of value chains, capacity building, and environmental, social, and governance considerations.