Women are leading Zambia’s MSME sector: here’s how it happened

By Freda Tamba, Director of Financial Conduct Supervision at Bank of Zambia

Women’s entrepreneurship spells good news for society. It breaks down deeply rooted perceptions of women as homemakers and brings fresh perspectives, ideas and products to the market. It creates employment in local communities and plays a major role in poverty alleviation. At the Bank of Zambia, this realization has changed the way we think about women’s economic participation. If we want to have thriving communities and innovative economies, we need to support Women-led MSMEs (WMSMEs). Here’s how we’ve done it:

• Policymaking
  Zambia’s two National Financial Inclusion Strategies (2017-2023 & 2024-2028) prioritized boosting women’s financial inclusion and entrepreneurial skills. This played a critical role in changing mindsets about women’s economic potential and in ensuring that future policies are formulated and implemented with a gender lens.
• Credit history
  Our credit reporting system enables women to build up credit histories and get easy, affordable access to loans.
• Collateral
  The adoption of a moveable property registry system allows women to qualify for credit using moveable property, rather than fixed assets or land as collateral.
• Digital Financial Services (DFS)
  We promote the use of DFS among women. It helps them keep their resources safe and allows them to transact directly from their homes – an important feature for women juggling business and family needs.
• Service Providers
  We’ve launched a self-check tool for financial service providers to encourage them to take better care of their women clientele by providing more gender-centric products and services.

And the results are encouraging. Today, over 60% of Zambia’s MSMEs are led by women. We’ve also seen that the percentage of the total loan value represented by women’s loans has increased from 18 percent in 2020 to 23 percent in 2023. Financial service providers have set up women’s desks, selling products specifically tailored for their women clientele’s needs. And the financial inclusion gender gap is narrowing, currently standing at less than 3%.

A lot of work still needs to be done. Socio-cultural barriers and a lack of financial literacy continue to jeopardize women’s business success in Zambia. But despite these challenges, we’ve come a long way, and we can finally say that Zambia’s women business owners are making headway.