AFAWA (Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa) is the Bank’s pan-African initiative that seeks to reduce the estimated $42 billion finance gap for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises on the continent. It is supported by various development partners including the G7 countries (France, Canada, Italy, Germany and the European Commission), the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (We-Fi) of the World Bank Group. AFAWA’s goal is to unlock up to $5 billion of financing for over 30,000 women business owners in Africa.