Lionesses of Africa Lionesses Business Confidence Report

Africa’s women entrepreneurs are enduring unprecedented challenges in the Covid-19 era. Even before the pandemic spread, women-led businesses faced significant hurdles, like access to financing, as they often lack the collateral or assets to secure loans or the experience in working with financial institutions that perceive their businesses as an investment risk. Now, women entrepreneurs from all corners of the continent are losing their businesses at a faster pace than men. Pandemic-related lockdowns compound the situation— cross-border trading has been negatively impacted and with that, the decline of women’s access to market opportunities, access to finance, and opportunities to grow their businesses. Add to all this, the expectation that women—including women entrepreneurs—take on the burden of care and education for children.