Capital to Scale: Women Entrepreneurs as Job Creators

In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of women are self-employed, running businesses that range from family-owned farms and market stalls to tech start-ups and film production.

The statistic was front and center at Capital to Scale: Supporting Women Entrepreneurs as Job Creators, a high-level event at this year’s World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, DC. The discussion—moderated by Nozipho Tshabalala—moved beyond the familiar story of women hustling to survive, and toward a bigger question: what would the global economy look like if women-led businesses had the capital to grow, expand, and create jobs?

“When women get a job or a livelihood, they focus on their families, and families make communities, and communities build societies and countries,” said Anshula Kant, Managing Director and World Bank Group CFO of as she engaged in a fireside chat with Mariana Costa, Co-Founder and President of Laboratoria, a social enterprise that equips young women across Latin America with digital skills.

Kant emphasized the importance of supporting women entrepreneurs, noting the World Bank Group’s target to reach 80 million more women and women-led businesses with capital by 2030.

“If we want a future that really considers the needs of women [in any field], we need more women in that field,” said Costa. She highlighted the gap between the talent women demonstrate in training programs and the obstacle—like care burdens and investor skepticism—that continue to block their entry into careers or leadership. For Costa, if women aren’t shaping the tools and markets, efforts to help them work or start businesses won’t go far.

Governor Jameel Ahmad of the State Bank of Pakistan described his country’s success in supporting women’s financial inclusion, one prerequisite to women starting businesses. Through the Banking on Equality strategy, female bank accounts in Pakistan increased from 20 million in 2021 to 37 million in 2025. In July 2025, Pakistan joined the WE Finance Code, a global framework launched by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) that helps financial institutions and regulators advance women’s access to capital through leadership commitment, the use of sex-disaggregated data, and innovative solutions.

“We asked banks not just to provide services, but to address underlying issues, capacity building and financial literacy among women,” Ahmad said, adding that other ingredients also contributed to the increase in inclusion: senior champions inside financial institutions, requirements for sex-disaggregated reporting, and clear targets.

“All elements, policy change, system reform, capital, education, capacity building, mentorship, networks, visibility, all need to be present,” said Charlotte Keenan, Managing Director and Global Head of Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Women, an initiative that provides women entrepreneurs in developing countries with access to capital, training and networking opportunities. 

Together in 2014, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and 10,000 Women program created the Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility (WEOF), to provide capital to women-owned small and medium-sized businesses. 

After 10 years of impact, Keenan said, 10,000 Women has enabled loans to 267,000 women, mobilizing three billion dollars in capital.

“If we extrapolate that forward that’s over 50,000 jobs created,” Keenan said.

Keenan noted that financial products perform better when they are designed around women’s realities from the start, including documentation hurdles, time constraints, and the need for advisory support. Keenan underscored the value of peer networks and mentoring for women. Turning loans into durable business growth requires not just access to money but the capability to use it well, she said.

“Are we driving enough impact at scale?” This was the guiding question for Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank Transnational. Ecobank made history earlier this year as the first bank in West Africa to issue a gender bond together with IFC to finance women-owned SMEs. Ecobank also supports women-led businesses in Africa through the Ellevate program, that supports budding women entrepreneurs with training and access to financial products.

For Awori three things are especially important: mentorship and training, access to capital, and building financial data and credit histories.

“Technical training validates a lot of women’s belief that the idea can actually work,” Awori explained. But confidence alone is not enough. Awori emphasized that women also need easier access to money. “De-risking and making capital available is... a massive one,” he said.

As he reminded the audience, over 80 percent of women in Africa are self-employed—a testament to their entrepreneurship and resilience, but also a sign of how many remain excluded from financial services that may help them grow and create jobs. Many women in the region still work in cash-based businesses, which makes it harder to build a financial record.

“Cash is still king... but it doesn't provide data,” Awori said. Many women-run businesses operate in cash, making it difficult to build a financial record. Bank accounts help women create credit profiles.

“Whether you borrow $10, you pay it back, 10 becomes 20 becomes 100,” he said, underscoring how even small transactions can lay the foundation for scalable access to capital

Jasmina Selimović, Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina which also joined the WE Finance Code as a signatory, said central banks can be powerful actors in supporting women entrepreneurs. Data collection by the central bank can be a powerful tool in designing policy that supports entrepreneurs.

Selimović said early results of a survey the central bank conducted show that only 20 percent of SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are owned by women, but only 11 percent of non-performing loans are linked to women. She believes this is a strong case for investing more in women entrepreneurs, who are lower risk, but still make up a too small share of the economy.

For Selimović it’s about building a society where everyone has equal opportunities to succeed. It’s not just about men or women, she said. “It is about a more productive economy.”

The session closed with a powerful summary by moderator Nozipho Tshabalala.  

“While bold reforms and financing innovations are really moving the needle, we must act with greater urgency and intentionality,” Tshabalala said. “Capital is catalytic, but it has to be paired with mentoring, capacity building and visibility. And then finally, evidence matters.”