By Chinwendu Obienyi

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) says it will channel $150 million funding to SMEs through Financial institutions (FIs) across Africa to enhance financial inclusion while also addressing barriers to SME funding.

This is even as it commended Access Bank’s support in providing funding, risk sharing and non-financial services to MSMEs through the proposed $1 billion SME Immersion Fund for Africa.

The President, AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, stated this during the African SME Immersion Roundtable Discussion organised by Access Bank Plc in Lagos.

While delivering a lecture on the theme of the event; Enhancing the Capabilities of MSMEs Across Africa, Dr Adesina, who was represented by the Director General, Nigeria Country Office, Lamin Barrow, said the bank have prioritised support to MSMEs in its interventions across the high 5 strategic priorities while adding that its lines of credit interventions are increasingly being more targeted to support the development of regional value chains and clusters, with strong linkages to MSMEs through off-taker and other support to de-risk the ecosystem.

He noted that the bank’s interventions have supported over 20,500 MSMES and have contributed to the creation of over 440,000 jobs, with women and the youth accounting for 60 per cent.

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“The Bank has also launched the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) as a flagship initiative to close the $42 billion access to finance gap for women led and owned SMSEs. Through AFAWA, the Bank will facilitate up to $5 billion in credit access to women SMEs by 2026. 

To date, over $800 million in investments have been approved for on-lending to 3,000 women SMEs in 23 African countries, including Nigeria. Our Africa SME Program will channel $150 million funding to SMEs through FIs across Africa to enhance financial inclusion while also addressing barriers to SME funding. Through a Technical Assistance component, this program will strengthen the beneficiary FIs’ ability to serve SMEs”, he revealed.

According to Adesina, the AfDB is currently implementing 3 flagship programs to support venture capital Industry and the programme is expected to stimulate investments in 226 technology and creative start-ups, and provide non-financial services to 450 digital technology and SMEs in order to create 6.1 million direct and indirect jobs.

He further revealed that the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) which was launched in 2019 will deploy $400 million in grants and loans by 2030 pursuant to the goal of ensuring 332 million people (60 per cent of women), have access to finance.

Whilst commending Access Bank for coming up with the proposed $1 billion immersion fund for MSMEs, Adesina reiterated that the bank will continue to deploy its array of instruments, and leverage its initiatives and strategic partnerships to support the development of MSMEs in Africa.