Ecobank Ghana has declared that its support for women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a deliberate economic strategy rather than a corporate social responsibility (CSR) exercise, as the bank deepens its engagement with female entrepreneurs operating across Ghana’s agribusiness sector.
Regina Ofori, Head of Marketing and Brand at Ecobank Ghana, made the position clear at the third edition of the Women in Business Dialogue Series held in Kumasi on Tuesday, organised under the theme “From Market-to-Market Leader: Empowering Women SMEs and Young Women in Agribusiness for Sustainable Growth.”
Ms. Ofori noted that women entrepreneurs remain central to Ghana’s economic transformation, particularly in agribusiness, where they dominate value chains from production to distribution, but continue to face structural barriers that limit their growth potential. She identified limited access to finance, technical capacity gaps, and restricted market linkages as the primary constraints preventing women-led businesses from moving beyond subsistence-level operations.
She described Ecobank as moving beyond its traditional role as a lender to function as what she called an orchestrator of growth for women entrepreneurs across the continent, with the bank’s Ellevate by Ecobank Programme at the centre of that ambition.
“When women prosper, the multiplier effect is unmatched. When a woman-led SME scales, it doesn’t just increase a balance sheet; it transforms a community, educates a generation, and builds a more resilient, inclusive economy,” she said.
The remarks reflect a broader shift in how Ecobank has positioned its gender financing work. According to figures released by the bank to mark International Women’s Day 2026, Ecobank’s lending to women-led businesses surged 194 percent to $780 million in 2025, compared to $265 million the previous year. Women face an estimated $42 billion financing gap across Africa despite high levels of entrepreneurial activity.
The Ellevate programme, originally launched in 2020, now operates across 26 countries and supports more than 103,000 registered women entrepreneurs. In 2025 alone, 21,000 new members joined the ecosystem while 24,000 women accessed mentoring and training services.
Ms. Ofori urged participants to reposition themselves from survival-driven operators to scalable market leaders, framing the shift as both a business and national development imperative.
The Women in Business (WIB) forum seeks to position women, particularly market traders, smallholder farmers, agro-processors, and artisans, as critical drivers of the country’s agrifood economy while addressing the persistent barriers that keep many locked in survival-level operations.
