From Advocacy to Action: Closing the Gaps for Women-Led MSMEs

Are We Losing Momentum?

Despite global and local advocacy, women entrepreneurs continue to face significant barriers to funding and growth. Does it seem that we may have to lobby harder for to close the financing gap for women-owned MSMEs, or is it that have we have rightfully celebrated small wins but gotten lost speed in converting the landscape to support these goals? 

Attending the socialisation discussion on G20 EMPOWER Alliance South Africa and the W20 South Africa (1), their intention to further mobilise to further mobilise the WE Code framework; attendees agreed that perhaps the rate of progress has been ‘insufficient’.   

So how do we shift from having to lobby for the institutionalisation of criteria and considerations that align with achieving fair gender opportunities, within the context of the MSME landscape?

South Africa stands at a critical juncture in its socio-economic development, where gender equity in employment is not just a moral imperative—it’s an economic necessity. Despite women comprising over half of the population, their participation in the labour market and business ownership remains disproportionately low, with far-reaching consequences for households, the broader economy, and the country’s future. The Sustainability Handbook has been in existence in various forms for the past 14 years. I think the ‘whys’ and most of the ‘what’ is clear; however – the actionable details on the ‘how’ is not.

A Systemic Challenge Requires Multi-Sector Alliances

Closing the financing gap for women-owned MSMEs cannot be achieved by government or private sector efforts alone. It requires multi-sectoral alliances—Banks, Fintechs, Regulators, Intermediaries, and Civil Society—aligned to shared metrics and measurable accountability.

At Rev Consulting, we’ve seen first-hand that transformation is possible when institutions, funders, and accelerators work in concert. Our work in accelerator programmes, SME product innovation, and funding readiness has consistently revealed three insights about women-led businesses:

• Confidence often thrives against the odds, yet is dampened by systemic barriers.
• Funding is rarely structured to align with growth stages and sector realities.
• Capital without capability—knowledge, planning, mentorship—often leads to business fragility.

  The Dual Risk of Bias: Human and Digital

We must confront the reality that biases are embedded in both people and systems. Gender biases will be perpetuated twofold, by legacy cultural narratives and by digital solutions that are developed by people with those legacy mindset; therefore people, systems and structures? Are these biases negatively effecting both confidence and access(financial and education) for women in business? Legacy cultural narratives already disadvantage women; digital innovations risk entrenching these inequities further.

Many women entrepreneurs self-select out of funding due to perceived complexity, distrust, or past exclusion. We must rebuild trust through simplified, empathetic, and accessible financial pathways. As fintech, embedded finance, and AI-driven underwriting gain traction across Africa, they must be gender-intelligent by design. Excluding gender-responsiveness at the foundation stage will replicate exclusion at scale.

Why Advisory Ecosystems Matter

Financial products alone won’t unlock growth; not everyone’s context and access to understanding entrepreneurship and business ecosystems is equal.  We find that dynamic ecosystems of advisory, mentorship, digital upskilling, and market access are therefore critical for scaling women-led businesses from micro to medium and beyond.

The IMF estimates that closing gender gaps in employment could boost GDP by 10–15% across African economies(2), education emerging as dominant predictors of female labour force participation(3).  This is also something that cannot be solved ‘quickly’ and haphazardly with a short online course that can be disconnected from the actual ecosystem that the business is operating in.

From the businesses we have mentored, we have found that the women in majority are the ones that appreciate the mentorship, execute with speed and therefore see results – therefore gaining confidence in their potential for growing their businesses. Interestingly enough, research finds that female leaders often adopt transformational leadership styles, promoting sustainability, ethical practices, and inclusive policies(4)(5).

The Case for Gender-Intelligent Finance

If we are serious, then lenders and investors need to reframe women-led enterprises as scalable investments, not just social causes. The financial ecosystem must shift its lens from viewing women-led businesses as “nice-to-have” inclusions to viable, scalable, and strategic investments.

This means:

• Redefining creditworthiness and capital allocation with gender-lens approaches.
• Embedding gender data into risk models; retooling risk models.
• Recognising women’s higher repayment reliability.

Evidence shows that women tend to have, on average, better loan repayment rates than men. The fact that the women receiving loans are, on average, lower risk than the men implies that women are being subjected to a comparatively higher bar for loan approval than men (6).   

From Measurement to Momentum

A recurring theme across global dialogues is measurement. Institutions must track not just how much financing reaches women entrepreneurs, but also its impact, scalability, and systemic outcomes. Growth advisory firms like Rev Consulting act as critical conduits—translating big policy into local practice, and feeding ground-level realities back into institutional design.

A Call to Action

The economic upside of gender parity in entrepreneurship is enormous. This IMF finding is reiterated by World Bank Group; women in developing economies reinvest up to 90% of their income into their households, compared to 30–40% by men, this reinvestment improves child nutrition, education, and healthcare, creating long-term human capital development(7). In South Africa, StatsSA data shows that households with employed women have higher school attendance rates and lower child mortality(8).

Let’s agree to create a national vision-board for the ‘how’ – the framing of how targets will be achieved and the adapting of the current environment to sustain this transformation. To future-proof Africa’s financial ecosystem, leaders must commit boldly now:

• Build gender-intelligent financial systems.
• Invest in accelerators and intermediaries that support women entrepreneurs.
• Collaborate across sectors to embed accountability and impact.

Africa’s competitive advantage is its demographics. To unlock it, we must nurture women-led MSMEs as strategic, scalable investments—not as afterthoughts.

Sumayya Surty

Partner – Rev Consulting

References:

• ‘Mobilizing South Africa’s Financial Ecosystem for the Adoption of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code’ with the intention to further mobilise the WE Code framework currently being piloted in over 25 countries; through professional discussions hosted on behalf of G20 EMPOWER Alliance South Africa and the W20 South Africa Delegation, in partnership with the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)  sponsored by Sanlam and Absa.
• Era Dabla-Norris And Kalpana Kochhar , March 2019,  Finance & Development – Closing The Gender Gap, International Monetary Fund
• Dunn, S., & Maharaj, P. (2024). Female Labour Force Participation in South Africa. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 60(4), 2672-2690. 
• Eagly, A. H. (2003).  Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: a meta-analysis comparing women and men.  Psychological Bulletin (2003). 
• Stefania Fabrizio (SPR) et. al, 2018 International Monetary Fund :Pursuing Women’s Economic Empowerment, International Monetary Fund
• Caire, Dean and Maria Fernandez Vidal. 2024, Gender-Intentional Credit Scoring, Technical Guide. Washington, D.C.: CGAP
• Oluwatosin Esther Ajewumi, Vol 6, Issue 3, pp 3820-3825 March 2025, Impact of Women in Leadership on Community Development and Economic Growth, International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews
• General Household Survey 2024, summary statistics published 27 May 2025, StatsSA