Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, has confirmed a $10 million investment into the African Women Impact Fund (AWIF), an initiative created to back women fund managers operating businesses across the continent.
The announcement was made during the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group (EWWG) Women to Africa event, hosted in partnership with Standard Bank and the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) at the Inanda Club in Sandton.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of this initiative,” said Luvuyo Masinda, Chief Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank during the announcement speech at the event. “Our focus is on driving sustainable growth across Africa by mobilising capital for women-owned businesses. By strengthening the role of women as fund managers and decision makers, we are helping expand access to finance, unlock opportunities and drive growth.,” said Masinda.
The AWIF is a pan-African, gender-lens programme developed by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UN Women, and the African Union Commission (AUC), with oversight from the African Women Leadership Network (AWLN). Its delivery has been supported through collaboration with several partners: Standard Bank Group as lead sponsor and promoter, RisCura Invest as investment manager and provider of incubation services, and MiDA Advisors as strategic advisor.
Launched in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 8, AWIF is designed to address the estimated $42 billion funding shortfall faced by women entrepreneurs across Africa.
Research suggests the fund could be a crucial tool for accelerating gender equality in business. According to the IFC report Gender and Investing: Women Fund Managers and Capital Allocation Trends, female investment managers are twice as likely to back women-led enterprises, creating a ripple effect that promotes wider financial inclusion. AWIF’s structure enables women to take on roles as fund managers, while generating investment opportunities for women-owned or women-led businesses using market-driven solutions.
Lindeka Dzedze, Standard Bank’s Executive Head of Strategic Partnerships Global Markets and Chair of AWIF, underlined the importance of intentional investment in gender equality, commenting: “This is the reason we must be intentional about gender-focused investing and ensure that women are well represented in decision-making roles within the investment management industry.”
The Women to Africa event offered a platform for practical discussions on financial inclusion and gender equality. It brought together key players across the ecosystem and issued a call to action for commitments and partnerships from public institutions, private firms, and civil society.
Minister Chikunga of the DWYPD welcomed the Standard Bank pledge, stating: “We are proud to witness key public-private partnerships like this one, which move beyond dialogue and translate into strategic, sustainable solutions. It is through collaboration that a greater potential for success and shared benefits for our communities and country can be achieved.”
AWIF is positioned as a public-private partnership that highlights women’s central role in Africa’s economic and social transformation. By supporting smaller managers who often go overlooked by major institutions, the fund has the potential to widen its reach significantly, creating new opportunities for SMEs and multiplying economic impacts across the region.
