The global financing gap for women-led businesses stands at a staggering $1.7 trillion. For Nigeria, this isn’t a distant statistic, it is the single greatest brake on our economic growth, costing us billions in lost potential, suppressing innovation, and stifling job creation. Yet, for too long, conversations about this gap have been placed solely under the banner of charity or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), treating it as a philanthropic footnote rather than a monumental commercial challenge.
The core message is simple: We are all complicit in accepting a flawed financial system. The collective failure to capture this market lies in a deeply ingrained, yet erroneous, belief that “gender-neutral” policies are sufficient in a profoundly gender-skewed reality. That belief is not just ethically flawed; it is costing our entire economy a fortune.
The flawed logic of this approach stems from the assumption that a gender-neutral capital strategy; one that treats every applicant the same, will ensure the best entrepreneurs succeed purely on merit. However, this simplistic view overlooks a fundamental truth of development economics: Neutral processes cannot create equitable outcomes in a non-neutral reality.
When a system is built upon layers of historical and structural bias, the enforcement of “neutrality” simply reinforces existing gender skew, making it virtually impossible for women to compete on truly equal terms. This is precisely how well-intentioned policy systematically excludes our most loyal, high-repaying customer segment: the African woman.
One of the primary mechanisms of this exclusion is what we term the Collateral Conundrum (A Policy Trap). Traditional lending uniformly demands physical assets, land or property as collateral. For a banker, this policy seems perfectly objective and neutral. However, because of centuries of patriarchal inheritance laws and cultural practices, women globally hold only a fraction of secured assets compared to their male counterparts. Consequently, the neutral policy becomes an unconscious blockade, rejecting a woman not because her business plan is weak, her character is poor, or her repayment history is dubious, but because the structure of her society denied her asset ownership in the first place. She may be highly creditworthy, but she remains collateral-ineligible.
Furthermore, this rejection is frequently compounded by the human element, manifesting as the Unconscious Bias on the Frontline (The Human Cost). The Relationship Manager (RM) or Loan Officer, tasked with evaluating the loan, consciously or unconsciously carries societal biases into the transaction. Our research at REAF Africa is conclusive, revealing that 62% of women face gendered questioning by lenders. These interrogations often doubt her autonomy, question her decision-making capacity, or even imply that she is merely a front for a male relative. While the bank’s official policy may be neutral, the interaction is not, creating a deeply emotional and frustrating barrier to access.
This emotional toll leads to the most devastating economic consequence of all: The Shame Tax and the Behavioral Drain. The persistent anticipation of bias and the very real fear of the trauma of rejection cause women to self-select out of funding opportunities. This is not a lack of ambition; it is calculated, trauma-driven inaction. Our data shows that an alarming 26% of qualified women intentionally withdraw their applications before being formally rejected. This conservative inaction, which we term the “Shame Tax,” is the true cost of systemic failure. By failing to integrate Trauma-Informed Advisory and psychological safety into the financial process, systems are actively reinforcing a behavioral drain that keeps billions of dollars out of the formal economy, stifling the growth of thousands of viable businesses.
The issue we face, therefore, is less a moral failing and more a structural and operational reality that must be urgently addressed. To unlock transformative profitability and accelerate national growth, every stakeholder from the capital allocator and development partner to the bank executive and the policymaker must urgently upgrade their strategy from “neutral” to “Gender-Intelligent.” This is a critical distinction: Gender-Intelligent Banking (GIB) is not a CSR donation; it is a commercial strategy that re-engineers the entire ecosystem to meet this lucrative segment where she is, maximizing both social and financial returns.
Achieving this GIB ecosystem requires a unified strategy across two critical fronts. First, we must Redesign the Supply Side (The Institution). Policymakers and banks must implement GIB Training to eliminate gendered questioning and shift the focus from the outdated metric of physical collateral to the evidence-based metric of Behavioral Collateral (e.g., strong savings history, demonstrated group repayment capacity, and character analysis). Second, we must proactively Activate the Demand Side (The Customer). Development agencies and investors must fund essential pre-investment infrastructure, such as REAF Africa’s Story Clinics, which use narrative therapy to heal financial trauma and build the Freedom of Mind necessary for women to confidently access, use, and scale the capital they receive.
When we commit to creating a psychologically safe and intelligently designed ecosystem, the results are immediate and profound. We don’t just reduce the financing gap; we unlock a customer base characterized by higher repayment rates, stronger loyalty, and robust, sustainable national growth. The $1.7 trillion opportunity is waiting. The challenge for every stakeholder in the Nigerian economy is clear: Are we finally ready to stop being gender-neutral and start being Gender-Intelligent?
Dr. ‘Tale Alimi is the Founder of REAF Africa, an organisation dedicated to closing the economic gender gap by applying behavioral science and institutional redesign.
