AXIAN and AfDB Launch African Women Finance Scheme

Pan-African conglomerate AXIAN Group and the African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a women’s financial inclusion programme to expand access to capital and business support for more than 34,000 women-led enterprises across five African countries.

Supported by the AfDB’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), the scheme addresses one of the primary constraints facing female business owners across the region. 

While Africa maintains the highest rate of female entrepreneurship globally, women entrepreneurs face an estimated US$49bn financing gap.

Supporting women with finance

The programme will deploy AXIAN Group’s digital financial platforms, Mixx and MVola, integrating a range of support for female business owners.

This includes financial literacy training, an essential skill, alongside digital lending and business development services. 

It operates via two complementary streams. The first will deliver tailored digital financial products to 34,000 women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Madagascar, Tanzania and Senegal. The second stream will provide financial literacy, digital skills and entrepreneurship training to 25,000 women across Madagascar, Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Comoros.

To reach founders underserved by conventional banking systems, the initiative relies on mobile money services, digital lending tools and alternative credit assessment models.

Erwan Gelebart, CEO of AXIAN Digibank and Fintech says: “Across Africa, millions of women are already running successful businesses. The challenge is not entrepreneurship. It is access to finance, to digital tools and to opportunities for growth.

"Through Mixx and MVola, we are using technology and financial innovation to support women entrepreneurs in building stronger businesses, creating jobs and participating more fully in the digital economy. This programme is about unlocking opportunity at scale.”

Five-pillar deployment for women-led businesses 

According to Melissa Basque-Roux, Coordinator for the AfDB’s AFAWA initiative, women entrepreneurs play a pivotal role in driving Africa’s economic growth, yet significant hurdles persist regarding access to funding, digital solutions and the necessary business development support to scale. 

AFAWA partners with the World Economic Forum, Africa Development Bank, Orabank, African Guarantee Fund and UN Women

“Through AFAWA and We-Fi, the African Development Bank is pleased to support this partnership with AXIAN, Mixx and MVola. The partnership will expand tailored digital financial services, strengthen financial literacy and unlock new opportunities for women-led businesses across the continent,” Melissa says. 

Implementation will be managed by Mixx and MVola alongside local operating companies in each participating country.

The agreement builds on previous corporate backing from the AfDB for AXIAN Telecom.

In January 2025, the Bank approved a US$160m senior corporate loan to expand digital connectivity and financial inclusion across nine African markets, which included specific funding earmarked for 22,000 women entrepreneurs in Madagascar.