Josephine Anan-Ankomah, Managing Director of Ecobank Kenya, has urged female entrepreneurs to take risks rather than play it safe when growing their companies.
According to her, women entrepreneurs, particularly those in Africa, frequently take their time growing their companies—not because they lack talent, but rather because they are afraid to take chances.
Mrs. Anan-Ankomah gave the example of popular food vendors that choose not to open additional locations or occasionally run out of inventory in spite of the strong demand.
“A lot of female entrepreneurs just don’t think about growing their companies because they are so terrified of the prospect. At the Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg (AFG) Memorial Lectures in Accra on Thursday, she stated, “Even when demand is knocking on their doors, they are held back by their fear of taking chances, managing larger operations, or obtaining financing.”
Mrs. Anan-Ankomah emphasized that this circumstance had turned many women into “necessity entrepreneurs,” who prioritized survival, rather than “opportunity entrepreneurs,” who sought to expand their businesses and advance the economy.
“Many women continue to self-finance, which limits their ability to compete, expand, and dominate their industries, while their male counterparts confidently walk into banks and negotiate for capital to scale,” she continued.
Lecture
The University of Ghana organized the 2025 AFG Memorial Lectures, which were given by Mrs. Anan-Ankomah, who is also the Ecobank Regional Executive for Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa.
The goal of the two-day lecture, which had as its topic “Her Money, Her Power: Making Finance Work for Women,” was to examine the obstacles that women encountered when trying to obtain financing as well as the advantages of supporting women-owned enterprises.
Following the speech, the institution granted Mrs. Anan-Ankomah an Honorary Doctorate in Laws (honoris causa) in appreciation of her exceptional contributions to banking and finance throughout Africa.
The University of Ghana established the AFG Memorial Lectures in 1957 as a stimulating forum for those who have made significant contributions to their areas.
Factors that inhibit
Although Mrs. Anan-Ankomah acknowledged that women must be brave when growing their enterprises, she said that several obstacles restricted women’s access to financing, which hindered their ability to develop economically.
Educational obstacles, a lack of financial knowledge, women’s lack of confidence in financial services, banks’ inability to create products specifically for women, and a false perception of gender neutrality in financial services are some of the problems she listed.
She noted that banks and other financial organizations have developed policies that viewed men and women as having similar financial experiences, failing to acknowledge the unique requirements of women throughout time.
“We live in a world where women’s banking behaviors are disregarded, where credit scores favor formal employment over entrepreneurial hustle, and where loans require collateral that women do not have,” she added.
She believed that the best way to deal with this issue was for regulators and financial organizations to put regulations in place that addressed the unique obstacles that prevented women from accessing financial services.
That entails gathering gender-disaggregated data from both the supply and demand sides, creating financial products that reflect how women really handle their money, and making sure that women’s opinions are heard at all decision-making levels, from boardrooms at banks to regulatory agencies, she stated.
Economic sense
Mrs. Anan-Ankomah urged banks, financial institutions, and regulatory agencies to recognize the importance of facilitating women’s access to financing, arguing that doing so would not only guarantee equity but also be financially prudent.
“Yes, bridging the gender financing gap could boost the global economy by $5 trillion, but the financial industry still treats women more like an afterthought,” she added.
The evidence is unmistakable: women make superior investors, savers, and borrowers. We should cease disregarding them now, since it is in our best interests,” she continued.
Female investors
According to the Ecobank Regional Executive, women are underrepresented in the investing markets despite research showing that they are superior to males as money managers and investors.
“The shortage of finance for female entrepreneurs is closely correlated with the paucity of female investors. Women don’t invest because they aren’t a part of the financial ecosystem, and the financial ecosystem doesn’t include them because they aren’t investing, creating a vicious loop, she added.
“We need more female angel investors, more women-led venture capital firms, and more gender-lens investment funds that prioritize financing women-led businesses,” she said, urging a concerted effort to develop female investors as a solution to this problem.
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