The Bank of Industry (BOI) and the MTN Foundation have launched a N1 billion matching fund aimed at expanding access to finance and business support for women-led micro enterprises across Nigeria, officials said.
The initiative, unveiled under the Y’ellopreneur 3.0 programme, was announced at a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony in Lagos recently. The programme is designed as a pilot to reach women who operate viable small businesses but are excluded from formal credit markets due to stringent collateral and documentation requirements.
BOI Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Olasupo Olusi said the fund targets women “at the base of the economic pyramid” whose enterprises contribute significantly to household incomes and local economic activity but struggle to access structured finance. According to Olusi, conventional lending criteria often do not align with the realities of micro-business operations, leaving many female entrepreneurs underserved. The initiative seeks to bridge this gap through a tailored financing model that can be refined and scaled over time.
Olusi said the programme goes beyond credit to include capacity building, business development support, and mentorship. He noted that about 1,000 women entrepreneurs are expected to receive training in areas such as record-keeping, growth management and competitiveness as part of the intervention.
The Executive Director of the MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, described the renewed collaboration as building on earlier pilot phases that helped refine the approach and expand impact. She said the foundation aims to build capacity for 30,000 female-led businesses by 2030, up from nearly 6,000 reached so far, and to unlock access to capital for 10,000 women-owned enterprises through the partnership with BOI. The programme will blend training, mentorship and financing while attracting additional partners to scale funding for the segment, she added.
Officials said the matching fund is crafted to deliver faster, measurable outcomes, deepen support for women entrepreneurs, and could serve as a blueprint for broader public-private cooperation in mobilising capital for inclusive enterprise development in Nigeria.
