Ellever is a new program dedicated to women-led and women-focused businesses

Ecobank Cote d'Ivoire launched "Ellever", a program dedicated to women, during a webinar which took place on March 26, 2020 in Abidjan. Through this action, the Ecobank Group intends to stimulate and support women entrepreneurs and businesses run by women or geared towards women. This through financial solutions and value-added services that will allow them to realize their full potential and prosper.

For Paul-Harry Aithnard, Managing Director of Ecobank Cote d'Ivoire "Women-led businesses are a very underserved market and Ecobank Cote d'Ivoire is committed to helping them realize their potential, seize business opportunities, to be able to expand and become sustainable. They will thus be able to play a major role in the social and economic development of Africa, in addition to creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, necessary for the current and future generations of Ivorians”.

Small and medium-sized enterprises make up about 90% of businesses in Africa and women own about a third of registered African SMEs. Today, one in four women in Africa (25.9%) start or run a business. However, women do not have equal access to quality financial services. The financing gap for women-owned SMEs is even estimated at $42 billion, making the difficulty of access to financing a major obstacle to the growth of these businesses.

“We have specifically designed Ellever to meet the needs of women entrepreneurs by offering them comprehensive, personalized and tailor-made solutions, in particular loans at favorable rates, better cash management and value-added services such as training. leadership, mentorship and networking opportunities. Ecobank Commercial Bank allocates at least 10% of its loan portfolio to women's enterprises. "", he added.

Cote d'Ivoire is the first country of the Ecobank Group to launch the “Ellever” program. The other subsidiaries should soon follow suit for the development of female entrepreneurship in Africa.

LAWANI Babatunde