Ecobank to invest US$2.6B in African agribusiness, women-led SMEs by 2030
The objective is also to foster the development of regional agricultural markets and reduce the continent’s dependence on food imports.
AFRICA – Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has announced portfolio targets totalling US$2.6 billion by 2030, divided between women’s entrepreneurship and agricultural value chains, according to the Lomé-based banking group.
The largest portion, US$2 billion, will go to Ellever, its program for women-owned and women-led businesses. Ecobank aims to build a loan portfolio of this size by 2030, the company says.
Nearly one million women micro-entrepreneurs are also expected to be targeted through initiatives promoting access to banking services and training, particularly in digital tools.
First, the financing is expected to primarily benefit companies active in agribusiness, health, and education. The bank plans to use guarantees from development finance institutions to mitigate some of the risk associated with lending to SMEs.
The second component involves US$600 million in outstanding loans for agricultural SMEs. Ecobank aims to broaden its intervention beyond traditional campaign financing, targeting the entire value chain from producers to exporters, including aggregators, processors, logistics providers and traders.
However, these objectives remain limited given the continent’s needs, according to the African Development Bank. The AfDB estimates the financing gap for SMEs owned or managed by women in Africa at US$49 billion, while for agricultural SMEs it estimates the access-to-finance gap at approximately US$96 billion per year.
This shift, according to Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank, reflects the group’s desire to finance more of the transformation of African agricultural production, not just farming campaigns.
Meanwhile, a portion of the loans will be directed toward climate-resilient agriculture, the digitalization of rural payments, and trade finance. The objective is also to foster the development of regional agricultural markets and reduce the continent’s dependence on food imports.
Ecobank plans to leverage its pan-African presence and payment infrastructure to achieve this. Its digital trading platform already connects more than 60,000 businesses and is intended to facilitate transactions between suppliers and buyers across African countries, particularly in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Lastly, this announcement comes a few months after the company committed US$3 billion over three years to finance intra-African and global trade, unveiled in May 2026 at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi. Ecobank, present in 34 sub-Saharan African countries, has made these commitments a key element of its post-40th anniversary strategy.
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