Uncomfortable truths about achieving gender equity in Africa’s diverse investment landscape

Last month, the Africa Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) hosted a landmark conversation on gender-smart investing, one that went beyond the usual talking points.

Rather than rehashing the business case for investing in women, the webinar surfaced fresh, and even uncomfortable truths about what’s needed achieve gender equity in Africa’s diverse investment landscape.

Gender-smart investing, or gender-lens investing, has become an increasingly familiar term in global development circles.

At the event we looked at how financial ecosystems in Africa are shaped by infrastructure gaps and cultural dynamics.

The panel featured investors British International Investment (BII), Altree Capital, ATG Samata, and women-led business Java Foods, and together they surfaced several under-explored challenges and new areas for innovation.

Financial barriers are often cultural

A standout insight came from ATG Samata, which pointed out that many women in Africa have been socialised away from taking financial risks. It can be that in some communities, women who manage or seek capital are viewed with suspicion, it was said.

ATG felt this cultural conditioning affects not just access to finance, but women’s confidence to engage with capital at all, whether as enterprises, entrepreneurs or investors.

Gender-lens investing is not hindered by a lack of opportunities, but by visibility. BII shared how their portfolio demonstrates a strong pipeline of gender-forward deals. The problem isn’t deal flow, it’s that these ventures, particularly those outside urban or elite investor networks, remain overlooked.

They said that Java Foods, a woman-founded Zambian enterprise, exemplifies the kind of business driving both financial and social returns that deserve more visibility and backing.

Climate and gender intersect deeply

Altree Capital emphasised that women, particularly in rural communities, are often both stewards of natural resources and frontline climate responders. Yet global climate finance rarely acknowledges this. The future lies in local, gender-responsive climate investments rooted in lived experience, not global templates.

We must move from checkbox metrics to intersectional impact: Pan-African investing often treats “gender” as a single category. But the conversation underscored how race, geography, class, and access to care infrastructure all interact with gender in complex ways. Intersectionality is the only way to design for real inclusion.

If gender-smart investing in Africa is to reach its full potential, it must be redefined through the continent’s lens. That means investing in more than just businesses – it means investing in the enabling environment.

Investing in a better world through investing in women

Matebe Chisiza

This includes: designing flexible capital structures and utilising blended finance models that reflect informal and community-based models. It also includes how we define and measure impact, particularly in rural or low-income contexts. And, it’s also about supporting ecosystem work that shifts social norms around gender and finance.

The call to action is clear: Don’t just fund gender initiatives, (re)build with them. AVPA invites social investors to partner on locally-grounded, culturally relevant models of gender-smart investing. Let’s move beyond frameworks and into real transformation by investing not just in women, but through them.

Matebe Chisiza is Southern Africa Regional Director at AVPA

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