WE Finance Code Rwanda Launches with a Broad Coalition Ready to Act
The energy on May 28 at the Alliance Summit in Kigali was palpable as key leaders from the policy and finance ecosystem convened for the official launch of the WE Finance Code Rwanda.
The launch event brought together a broad coalition of signatories including National Bank of Rwanda (Central Bank), ten commercial banks, the Development Bank of Rwanda, the Rwanda Bankers Association and the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda, and Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR), among others.
First Lady of Rwanda H.E. Jeannette Kagame delivered a powerful speech emphasizing that women’s financial inclusion represents “not charity but hard-nosed interest for policy and private sector” and a fundamental right. She noted that several of the country’s commercial banks have women at the helm, as does the Development Bank of Rwanda and the Central Bank; underscoring that the Code will build on the country’s strong legacy of women’s leadership.
In her opening remarks, Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda Soraya Hakuziyaremye stressed that the signing of the Code is not merely ceremonial; it represents a decisive push to enable women entrepreneurs’ success and spur economic growth. Women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (WMSMEs) represent 40 percent of formal businesses in the country but receive just 25 percent of business finance, pointing to a massive untapped market and opportunity to increase GDP.
Alliance CEO Inez Murray reinforced the business case with compelling global evidence: Alliance members have seen a 12 percent compound annual growth in women’s business lending versus 4 percent in consumer lending between 2020 and 2023, while maintaining lower non-performing loan rates across all categories.
The National Bank of Rwanda’s Valence Kimenyi reminded the audience that now the work must focus on three critical elements for success: acting collaboratively, being data-driven, and being intentional in translating commitments into action.
The WE Finance Code Community of Champions Convenes Countries Around the World
Two days later, the We Finance Code Community of Champions convened for the Annual in-person Study Tour. This year’s Study Tour brought together 143 participants from 37 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, for an immersive workshop designed to accelerate implementation by sharing what works, what doesn’t, and how to troubleshoot common challenges.
Wendy Teleki, Head of the We-Fi Secretariat at the World Bank, emphasized the importance of aggregating experiences across countries: “We’re building a global evidence base that demonstrates not just that this works, but how to make it work in different contexts.”
Among the key topics discussed:
- Diverse Approaches to Recruitment and Engagement: Code Champions shared their signatory recruitment strategies, each developed to respond to the local context. In Mongolia, where women own/lead over 60 percent of SMEs, the business case is easier to articulate to FSPs. In Jordan, where less than 10 percent of formal businesses are women-owned/led, the central bank is playing a larger role in communicating the business case and using pilot programs to demonstrate the opportunity.
- Data as the Foundation for Change: Speakers discussed critical needs to establish the baseline including using unique identifiers for both individuals and businesses, setting national definitions for women-owned enterprises, and supporting FSPs on their gender data journey. To this end, we heard how the Bankers’ Association in the Dominican Republic (ABA) formed a Working Group with banks to reach consensus among signatories, agreeing on a national definition in just one meeting. We also heard developments in country-level data aggregation. The Central Bank of Nigeria shared their “single source of truth” dashboard that aggregates information from multiple sources, explaining that the national dashboard “gives financial institutions a sense of the market, but also gives the central bank a sense of what value proposition is effectively in the market.”
- Spurring Action to Support WMSMEs: A critical discussion on moving from Code commitments to measurable impact, with a focus on policy interventions enhancing women entrepreneurs’ access to finance. Khaled Bassiouny from Egypt’s Central Bank shared an interesting policy that enables micro businesses to create Economic Activity Accounts without undertaking the lengthier process of formal business registration, generating 440,000 new business accounts in its initial phase. Faria Shahid from HBL Bank in Pakistan highlighted the success of the central bank’s Banking on Equality policy, achieving a 70 percent increase in women’s active accounts through a range of targeted interventions: setting targets and mandating women’s banking desks at bank branches alongside financial incentives, technical assistance, and financial literacy programs.
The Study Tour then moved into a World Café format where participants walked around a gallery showcasing the many tools and resources that We-Fi has developed to support implementation at the country level. These are available in the WE Finance Code resources library.
To find out more about the WE Finance Code Community of Champions and how to join, click here.
