The National Credit Guarantee Company has officially launched GuaranteeHer, a dedicated credit guarantee initiative designed to unlock over ₦100 billion in financing for women-owned and women-led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises across Nigeria over the next five years. Unveiled during a hybrid stakeholder engagement in Abuja, the program sets out to address one of the most persistent hurdles facing female entrepreneurs: limited access to formal credit. By providing credit guarantees directly to financial institutions, the initiative reduces lending risks, lowering borrowing costs and encourages banks to extend far more affordable loans to women-led enterprises.
The initiative launches at a critical moment, as women remain disproportionately excluded from the formal financial system despite their proven entrepreneurial capacity and strong repayment records. In Nigeria, one in every three women lacks access to appropriate financial services, routinely encountering greater obstacles in securing formal credit than their male counterparts due to structural barriers like inadequate collateral, informal business documentation, and exaggerated perceptions of lending risk. Speaking at the launch, Minister of Women Affairs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim highlighted the transformative potential of GuaranteeHer, emphasizing that increasing access to affordable finance enables women entrepreneurs to expand their businesses, generate employment, and drive national economic growth.
Enjoying this article? Share it with your network!
Operationally, the framework offers participating financial institutions credit guarantees covering up to 70% of eligible lending portfolios, alongside donor-backed first-loss funding, concessional financing, technical assistance, and gender-focused impact measurement mechanism. In turn, participating lenders are expected to pass these risk-reduction benefits directly to borrowers through lower interest rates, reduced collateral demands, extended repayment periods, and prompt repayment incentives. The program will kick off with a 12-month pilot phase deploying between ₦5 billion and ₦10 billion in guaranteed portfolios through selected financial partners before expanding nationwide to reach its ₦100 billion target ultimately aiming to support over 20,000 women-owned businesses and create or sustain more than 150,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.
Information provided by Edfrica is for awareness purposes only and does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement.
