WASHINGTON, January 15, 2026 - The World Bank approved $100 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA) to help Benin promote access to finance and growth for women entrepreneurs in both the formal and informal sectors.
The Women Entrepreneurship Development and Access to Finance Program (WEDAF) is a results-based program (PforR). It will support the government in setting up a Women's Business Center and provide more than 10,000 women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with access to loans, training, mentoring, and career advice. This results-based program will competitively select a cohort of promising enterprises led or owned by women-Les Agodjié, who are the champions of women' s entrepreneurship. These Agodjié Champions will benefit from a package of support, including technical assistance, access to tailored financing instruments, investment readiness support, market access, as well as structured mentorship, to position their businesses as flagships of the Beninese economy and engines of job creation.
"In addition to the challenges that all businesses face, women face specific barriers that limit the creation, development, and growth of their businesses. The WEDAF program aims to accelerate the growth of women-owned and women-led businesses and strengthen their role in creating jobs and wealth," said Mamadou Tanou Baldé, World Bank Acting Country Manager for Benin. "When women entrepreneurs have access to finance, training, and mentorship, their business performance and job creation increase significantly."
This program benefits from substantial complementary support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. The latter will bring its expertise in capital structuring, its ability to mobilize regional investors, as well as its technical expertise, through tailor-made advisory services. It will help overcome capacity, formalization and financing barriers faced by women entrepreneurs. In addition, IFC will offer its own financing solutions, focusing on SMEs with commercial potential, while increasing the number of women-led businesses benefitting. This will involve current and future investments as well as advisory services - such as the Banking on Women program - for the benefit of partner financial intermediaries.
"Only 3.9% of women-managed businesses have access to bank loans, and many operate in a market segment underserved by microfinance institutions or commercial banks. This program is a real opportunity to turn women entrepreneurs into true national champions," says Vincent Arthur Floreani, IFC Country Officer for Benin.
This program is aligned with the National Policy for the Development and Promotion of SMEs 2025-2035. Its objective is that by 2035, Beninese MSMEs will operate competitively in an adequate institutional framework and a business environment conducive to wealth creation and decent and sustainable jobs.
