Financial Inclusion for African Women: Tendai Mugabe on Power, Capital, and System Change
Tendai Mugabe is a lawyer, systems builder, and women’s economic empowerment advocate working at the intersection of financial inclusion, youth entrepreneurship, and leadership. She is the Founding Director and Director of Programmes and Impact at the Africa Women Financial Inclusion Initiative (AWFII).
With over 15 years of experience across corporate and NGO sectors, and project leadership spanning Southern, East, and West Africa, her work is grounded in a deep understanding of how policy, finance, and social norms shape women’s economic realities. She has led high-performing teams and contributed to long-term initiatives such as PowerGirls, a seven-year programme focused on uplifting vulnerable girls across South Africa.
At AWFII, the philosophy is clear: real change happens when women are equipped not just with resources, but with power — economic power, decision-making power, and the ability to shape their own futures.
In this conversation, she reflects on what true financial inclusion looks like for African women, why youth entrepreneurship must be approached through a gender lens, and what it will take to redesign systems that work at scale.
q&a
AWFII is grounded in the idea that financial inclusion is about power, not just access. What does true financial inclusion look like for African women, especially young women and first-time entrepreneurs?
True financial inclusion begins when women are not only allowed into financial systems but are able to exercise agency within them. For African women, particularly young women and first-time entrepreneurs, this means having the power to make financial decisions without fear, dependency, or penalty.
In practical terms, it looks like women accessing finance that is appropriate, affordable, and aligned to their realities, not products designed for formal economies and retrofitted for informal ones. It also means having choice: the choice to grow a business slowly, to say no to exploitative capital, or to prioritise stability over scale.
At AWFII, we see inclusion as the intersection of capital, capability, and confidence. Without all three, access alone can deepen vulnerability rather than unlock opportunity.
From your experience across multiple African regions, where are systems still failing women entrepreneurs most — policy, finance, education, or social norms?
These failures are deeply interconnected, but if I had to name the most persistent barrier, it would be social norms embedded within formal systems. Policies may be gender-neutral on paper, financial products may technically exist, and entrepreneurship training may be widely offered, but social norms quietly shape who is considered “bankable,” “credible,” or “serious.” Women are still penalised for caregiving responsibilities, informality, and risk profiles that do not mirror male entrepreneurial pathways.
Across regions, the common thread is that systems were not designed with women’s lived realities in mind. Until we confront that foundational bias, progress will remain fragmented.
Youth entrepreneurship is often promoted as a solution to unemployment. What specific risks do young women face in these narratives that we don’t talk about enough?
Youth entrepreneurship narratives often romanticise resilience while outsourcing risk to young people, particularly young women. For young women, entrepreneurship can mean navigating unpaid labour at home, unsafe markets, limited mobility, and zero social protection, all while being celebrated as “innovative.”
Failure is not neutral. It can carry social stigma, economic precarity, and long-term exclusion from credit systems. We don’t talk enough about how entrepreneurship, without safeguards, can reinforce inequality rather than resolve it. Supporting young women entrepreneurs must include income stability, mentorship, mental health support, and pathways beyond self-employment.
You’ve worked at both grassroots and policy levels. What needs to change structurally for financial inclusion efforts to move from pilots to lasting impact?
We need to stop treating women as a “target group” and start treating them as system designers.
Structurally, this means embedding gender considerations into core financial infrastructure — credit scoring, procurement systems, and social protection mechanisms — rather than relegating them to pilot programmes or donor-funded projects. It also requires long-term funding horizons, policy coherence, and accountability mechanisms that measure power shifts, not just participation numbers.
Women’s economic empowerment is often framed as a ‘women’s issue’. Why is that limiting?
Framing women’s economic empowerment as a women’s issue absolves systems, and those who benefit from them, of responsibility.
A more honest conversation would recognise women’s financial inclusion as an economic, political, and development imperative. Economies cannot grow sustainably while excluding half their population from meaningful participation. This reframing shifts the question from “How do we help women?” to “What must systems change to function fairly?”
If you could redesign one part of the financial ecosystem for women, what would it be?
I would redesign how risk is assessed.
Current models penalise informality, care responsibilities, and non-linear income, all realities for many women. A reimagined system would value consistency, community trust, and adaptive resilience, not just assets and collateral. Changing risk assessment would unlock capital at scale.
Looking ahead, what will it take for women’s financial inclusion to move from aspiration to reality?
It will take political will, long-term investment, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths about power.
Women’s financial inclusion becomes real when women are not just participants in systems, but authors of them. When choice replaces survival, and economic participation is no longer conditional. That is the future AWFII is working toward.
🔗 Learn more about AWFII: https://awfii.org
🔗 Follow Tendai on LinkedIn: @TendaiAngelineMugabe
