The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) have announced a tenfold expansion of the She Wins Africa programme, increasing its reach from 100 to 1,000 women entrepreneurs across Sub-Saharan Africa, backed by a $4 million capital increase.
The decision follows what organisers describe as strong results from the inaugural cohort, which mobilised more than $4 million in financing for participating women-led startups and exceeded initial performance targets.
The announcement was made at the She Wins Africa closing event in Lagos, underscoring a broader shift in Africa’s development finance landscape where pilot programmes that demonstrate measurable traction are now being scaled with institutional backing.
From Pilot to Continental Platform
“When we started with 100 women entrepreneurs, it was a successful pilot, but we realized that 100 is just the beginning for a region like Africa,” said Marieme Niang Camara, IFC’s Senior Operations Officer and Regional Gender Hub Lead for Africa.
“When you look at the impact it created and the kind of access to capital and markets it gave to those women entrepreneurs, you see this is a program worth scaling. Now we’re moving from 100 to 1,000, and we’re doing it strategically through segmentation from startups to growth-stage and scale-up companies. We’re offering tailored technical assistance, investment-readiness support and direct access to capital through both funds and IFC-backed banks. This is how we turn pilot success into regional transformation.”
The numbers underpinning the scale-up are concrete. Participating startups collectively raised over $4 million, with 17 women-led enterprises successfully accessing external financing, surpassing the programme’s original targets.
Over the past year, She Wins Africa delivered 123 hours of targeted technical support, provided tailored advisory support to 22 startups beyond standard training, facilitated 275 investor connections across regional and international markets and mobilised 100 mentors across Africa.
The structured approach combined technical assistance, mentorship and capital access a hybrid model increasingly seen as critical to addressing Africa’s gender financing gap, where women entrepreneurs remain significantly underfunded relative to their male counterparts.
Catalytic Capital Crowds In Private Investment
A core pillar of Phase I was catalytic funding.
Through an initial grant envelope of approximately $100,000, the programme helped mobilise nearly $400,000 in follow-on investment, working with regional and local investment partners including Octerra Capital, IMEX, Sahel Capital, Nubia Capital and Convergence Advisory.
The capital supported operational expansion, infrastructure strengthening, production scale-up and hiring while reducing perceived investor risk and accelerating growth trajectories.
The first cohort spanned 23 countries and included women-led startups at different stages, from early ventures to more established businesses. The inclusive structure allowed stage-appropriate support, strengthening the pipeline of investment-ready enterprises across markets.
The expansion to 1,000 beneficiaries will increase both the number of countries and the number participants covered, deepening the programme’s geographical footprint.
“This is one of the most impactful programs on the continent, empowering women entrepreneurs,” said Dr Ubon Udoh, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ASR Africa. “What they do is not just for individual countries; it’s strengthening the economy of the whole continent.”
“We’re scaling up from the first phase of 100 women from 23 countries to 1,000 women across Africa, with an increase in both the number of countries and beneficiaries. This expansion will create a more sustainable impact and extend the program’s geographical reach.”
Dr Udoh added that lessons from the first phase are being applied to ensure Phase II success and confirmed that collaboration with IFC has prompted ASR Africa to review its own mentorship programme supporting young female entrepreneurs across the continent.
Building Africa’s Investment-Ready Pipeline
She Wins Africa operates under a broader umbrella of four initially envisioned projects. The scale-up marks the first major expansion within that framework.
The next phase will prioritise scale-ready ventures while continuing to support early-stage businesses a deliberate strategy aimed at building a stronger, more resilient pipeline of women-led enterprises.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, women-owned businesses face a persistent financing gap running into billions of dollars annually. While women represent a substantial share of the continent’s entrepreneurial activity, they receive a disproportionately small share of venture and growth capital.
By combining technical assistance, masterclasses, business coaching, investment-readiness training and direct capital access, She Wins Africa is attempting to address structural bottlenecks rather than offer symbolic support.
The programme’s hybrid model linking knowledge with capital was described as the bedrock of Phase I success. Its expansion signals confidence that women-led enterprises can deliver bankable returns when provided with structured support and credible investor pathways.
The broader development context is also shifting. With concessional finance tightening and global capital flows becoming more selective, development finance institutions are under pressure to demonstrate measurable outcomes and scalable models. She Wins Africa’s expansion reflects that discipline.
Institutional Backing and Long-Term Vision
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has positioned gender-lens investing as a core pillar of its Africa strategy. ASR Africa, founded in 2021 by African industrialist and Chairman of BUA Group Abdul Samad Rabiu, was established to deliver sustainable, impact-based, homegrown solutions to developmental challenges in health, education and social development across Africa.
By backing She Wins Africa, ASR Africa is aligning philanthropic capital with structured enterprise growth mechanisms a model increasingly favoured in African development circles.
The expansion from 100 to 1,000 women entrepreneurs is not incremental. It is exponential.
As Camara put it, “100 is just the beginning for a region like Africa.”
If the first cohort’s financing mobilisation and investor engagement metrics are replicated at scale, She Wins Africa could materially influence how gender-focused enterprise support is structured across the continent shifting the narrative from pilot projects to scalable platforms.
For Africa’s women entrepreneurs, the pipeline is widening. The capital is following.
