Primitive Natete, a single mother from Kibungo Sector in Ngoma District in the Eastern Province, joined a savings and lending group in 2023, contributing Rwf200 per day. Today, she runs a small-scale poultry and maize farming business. She became pregnant while still at school and had to take on the responsibility of raising her child as a single mother. ALSO READ: Rwanda commended for advancing women's land rights “I received a loan of Rwf5,000 from the savings group and started producing 10 litres of traditional sorghum beverage per day. As I made profits, I increased production to 40 litres per day,” she narrated. She also collected coffee from farmers and supplied it to coffee washing stations to earn additional income. Natete opened a bank account with a local bank and, in 2025, applied for a Rwf1 million loan, repayable within one year at an interest rate of 10 per cent. “That loan has enabled me to start a project to build a chicken coop for 100 chickens. I buy one chick at Rwf2,700 and sell it after a few months at Rwf15,000 when it grows. I am now able to repay the loan with half of the loan already cleared,” she said. Through savings, Natete managed to buy a 3,500-square-metre piece of land (measuring 70 metres by 50 metres) in a rural area at a cost of Rwf800,000. She also leased land where she harvests 200 kilogrammes of maize to support her family’s food needs. Natete was speaking during discussions on financing gender equality in agri-food systems held on June 24 under the theme: “Catalysing inclusive and climate-resilient agri-food systems through gender-responsive financing.” Supporting women Experts said women in food systems need access to finance, but collateral and guarantee requirements remain major barriers. For Natete, a UN-funded project known as the Joint Programme on Accelerating Progress Towards Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) served as a guarantee mechanism. ALSO READ: Why women farmers need more access to finance Solange Uwituze, the State Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, said such initiatives need to be scaled up to unlock financing for women in agriculture. Under the Fifth Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation (PSTA5), she said Rwanda has committed to building inclusive, productive, climate-resilient, and market-oriented agri-food systems that contribute to food security, job creation, and income growth for all citizens. “We recognise that achieving these commitments and ambitions will not be possible without unlocking the full potential of women and youth, who constitute the backbone of Rwanda’s agricultural sector,” she remarked. In Rwanda, women represent 79 per cent of the workforce engaged in agriculture. The minister maintained that the government is currently prioritising women’s empowerment, youth participation, climate-smart agriculture, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship development, cooperative strengthening, technology adoption, and market integration. “Women remain key players in agricultural production, food security, nutrition, and household welfare. Yet many continue to face constraints in accessing finance, productive assets, insurance products, markets, and business development services,” she said. “Evidence consistently demonstrates that when women have equal access to productive resources and financial services, agricultural productivity increases, household incomes rise, food security improves, and communities become more resilient to climate shocks,” she added. Uwituze said public resources alone would not be sufficient to achieve the scale of transformation envisioned under NST2 and PSTA5. “We therefore look to our financial institutions as strategic partners in Rwanda’s development journey. We encourage financial institutions to move beyond conventional lending models and develop innovative financial products that respond to the realities of women farmers and agripreneurs,” she noted. Richard Ndicunguye, in charge of gender equality and inclusion at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), emphasised that scaling up climate-smart agriculture requires strong data systems to track vulnerability and effectively deploy resources. “Today we say women are disadvantaged in this sector, but do we really know the numbers? Do we really know the specific issues? If we strengthen systems to gather data regularly, we will know exactly where the challenges are and which financing tools to deploy,” he said. ALSO READ: Women take lead in fight against hunger, malnutrition Challenges Innocent Ngoga, Director of Cooperative Promotion and Capacity Building Unit at the Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA), said women make up 47 per cent of cooperative members, calling for tailored financial products. Sifa Musabyimana, a maize farmer from Nyamasheke District, said cooperatives that lack legal status face significant barriers in accessing credit. “We began as nine savings groups and later came together to form Ejo Heza Cooperative. We first leased land and eventually purchased our own. Today, we own three plots of land and grow coffee,” she said. However, despite their progress, access to financing remains a challenge. “We needed a loan of Rwf4 million to buy a house, but we could not secure it because the land we intended to use as collateral had not yet been registered in the cooperative’s name. This was because we had not obtained legal personality,” she explained. Musabyimana also noted that limited access to financial institutions in rural areas remains a major obstacle, particularly for women seeking financial services. “Banks and other financial institutions are often located far from where we live. The long distance makes access difficult, so more branches and agents should be established in rural areas,” she said. Thomas Ameny, an agriculture expert at FAO, said that women farmers often face financing barriers beyond access to land, including limited decision-making power and heavy unpaid care responsibilities. “Women spend about seven hours on unpaid care work compared to two hours for men, yet they make up around 70 per cent of the agricultural workforce,” he said. ALSO READ: Rwanda achieves 96% financial inclusion for women Financial literacy key obstacle Virgile Ngabo, Manager, Advisory Services & Green Finance at BRD, said collateral is not the only obstacle facing women entrepreneurs. “The first challenge is financial literacy and investment readiness. Accessing finance means getting prepared before you actually need financing. Having a relationship with a financial institution means building trust, maintaining records, and having an active account,” he observed. He highlighted a newly developed financial solution, SHABUKA, tailored to address the financing needs of women-led and women-owned businesses by lowering key barriers to accessing finance. The initiative is easing access to finance by reducing collateral coverage requirements to as low as 15%, lowering equity contribution requirements to 10%, leveraging various financial guarantee schemes to reduce credit risk, covering the cost of guarantee fees and subsidising the interest rate to 12% to make financing more affordable for women entrepreneurs. SHABUKA product also includes nationwide coaching, mentorship, capacity building, and technical assistance to support women-led and women-owned enterprises in becoming investment-ready, strengthening their business and financial management skills, and preparing bankable projects that can successfully access finance and scale sustainably.
