First Lady Jeannette Kagame said that women’s access to finance is not a charity nor a favour but a matter of economic survival, national resilience, and global competitiveness. She made the remarks on Wednesday, May 28, during the Annual Summit of Financial Alliance for Women, held at the Kigali Convention Center under the theme “Accelerating Enabling Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.” The summit brought together more than 400 leaders from financial institutions, FinTechs, regulators, development finance institutions, and policymakers to explore transformative solutions for advancing women’s financial inclusion. The First Lady said women's economic power is no longer a peripheral one, but one that is at the epicenter of building resilient, inclusive economies. “One cannot overstate the contradictions the financial world has normalised, she said. We talk about building sustainable economies, about resilience in the face of global shocks. Yet, global policies often seem to lock out the majority of women from accessing finance.” The First Lady noted that despite overwhelming evidence, it is strange that people still debate about whether investing in women is a good business. Yet, she said, women are routinely praised for their capabilities to multitask, to be perceptive and attentive, nurture the potential of all those around them, juggle paid and unpaid work, and to carry life, preserve it, nurture it and enrich it. ALSO READ: Rwanda achieves 96% financial inclusion for women, driven by mobile banking growth Mrs Kagame told the participants that Rwanda has tried to chart a path grounded in the understanding that “women’s financial inclusion is not charity, and it is certainly not a favour. It is a matter of economic survival, national resilience, and global competitiveness.” According to the 2024 FinScope Survey, women’s financial access has improved significantly from 74 percent in 2020 to 90 percent in 2024, largely due to increased mobile money adoption. However, challenges of access to finance remain. “It has been tried and proven that we cannot combat the injustice of extreme wealth disparity, a silent killer, unless we are willing to provide end-to-end mentorship, financial literacy training, and access to financing to women entrepreneurs. With intentional backing, investing in women is not only a safe bet, it is a revolutionary one,” she said. While it is important to ensure that the ‘housewife’s basket’ is full indeed, she noted that it is equally crucial to finance their accounts and those of their businesses. “Let us help these women to build and grow their savings, to ensure their autonomy,” she said. ALSO READ: BNR calls on banks to drive financial inclusion for women The summit also featured the launch of Women Entrepreneurs (WE) Finance Code Rwanda –a bold commitment by financial service providers, regulators, and ecosystem players to expand both financial and non-financial services for women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The Code requires signatories to report gender-disaggregated data on financial access and usage, fostering transparency and helping build the business case for investing in women. Commending this move, the First Lady called on financial institutions and policymakers to be determined to build financial systems that empower women. “Let us be bold enough to hold ourselves accountable for the change we promise, and to ensure that the next generation inherits an economy where no woman is left behind, because when we invest in women, we are not just investing in fairness or equity; we are investing in a stronger economy; we are investing in a more innovative, and resilient world.” ALSO READ: Access to Finance Rwanda endorses gender parity charter to champion women's inclusion in financial sector Inez Murray, the CEO of the Financial Alliance for Women, stated that a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem fosters innovation, reduces barriers, and provides entrepreneurs, especially women, with the necessary resources to start, grow, and sustain their businesses. Access to finance encompasses debt, equity from angel investors or venture capital, efficient capital markets, public financing in the form of grants and subsidies, as well as gender-responsive finance initiatives, among others. However, beyond finance, she noted that an enabling policy and regulatory environment is also key to driving access to finance for women, including supportive legal frameworks, easy business registration and licensing processes, tax incentives, firm intellectual property rights, and an analysis to ensure they are gender-inclusive. Referring to the WE Finance Code, Murray said: “We have seen that average products per customer reach parity between men and women two years after a member has introduced a deliberate, holistic strategy to support women.” “We have seen a 12 percent compound annual growth rate in our members’ business lending to women compared to a four percent compound annual growth rate in their consumer lending between 2020 and 2023,” she said. Soraya Hakuziyaremye, the Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, emphasized that the central bank’s responsibility is not only to preserve financial stability, but to ensure that the financial system serves the real economy and all its people. Recent analysis from National Establishment Census in 2023 shows that while MSMEs represent more than 99 percent of all businesses, they receive only Rwf4.6 trillion in terms of total lending. On the other hand, women-led MSMEs, which make up 40 percent of the total businesses, secured Rwf164 million by end of the first quarter of 2025. “That gap is not due to a lack of potential. It is due to a lack of tailored financial solutions, historical bias, and insufficient data,” said Hakuziyaremye. Taking note of the WE Finance Code, she said that it is more than a symbolic gesture but a blueprint for systemic reform, serving as a framework that brings together leadership, data, and action to transform how financial institutions serve women entrepreneurs. “It calls on institutions to mobilize targeted capital, innovate in product design, track and report gender-disaggregated data, and embed gender sensitivity into the fabric of policy and practice. In essence, it moves us from intention to implementation.” Rwanda joined over 30 countries already implementing the WE Finance Code, expanding a global movement to unlock the untapped economic potential of women entrepreneurs.
