The occasion of the 40th Midi of Microfinance and Financial Inclusion held on 5 July 2017 was centred around the obstacles to women’s entrepreneurship in Africa.

For its 40th anniversary, marked by the presence of Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and the Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Romain Schneider, discussions focused on the obstacles to women's entrepreneurship In Africa and the role of microfinance and mesofinance.

To discuss this, ADA invited the following field workers to the event: Félicité Kambou, Director of the Co-operative Agricultural Services Co-operative (COPSA-C) in Burkina Faso; Josée Mukandinda, Director of Operations at the Microfinance Institution Umutanguha Finance Company in Rwanda; Marèma Bao, Deputy General Manager of the COFINA Mesofinance Institute in Senegal; Myriam Kadio-Morokro, founder of the PROCRÉA clinic in Abidjan, who also moderated the debate.

Myriam Kadio-Morokro, in opening the debate, looked at the role that microfinance can play for these African women entrepreneurs in a sector dominated by men.

According to Josée Mukandinda: "Microfinance has a dual mission: a financial mission first, through the provision of financial products (savings and credits), a social and non-financial mission, through support in management of the project. It is the first stage in the emancipation of women, while women still have to provide for their household when they return from work.”

For Marèma Bao, on the other hand, commented that: "Mesofinance - positioned between micro and banking - allows women to leave micro-credit to build strong and sustainable SMEs. […] However, very few of these micro-entrepreneurs move from a micro-stage to an SME stage. We must accompany them, that is our mission."

She added that there is potential to take advantage of the fact that SMEs generate significant results in Africa: €1,000 euros of investment in an SME equivalent to 3 new employees, who themselves will take care of 10 people.

In sum, the debate highlighted the obstacles to access to finance for women: a lack of reliable guarantees on the one hand, usually reserved for men, but also a lack of information and financial education which can be explained by a strongly anchored mentality that puts man in the positionas decision-maker.

The testimonies of the speakers provided some keys to overcome these difficulties: in terms of financial accompaniment, guarantees can be provided by government funds or smaller-scale solidarity groups. In terms of non-financial support, institutions such as ADA help train and educate African women in entrepreneurship.

In the course of the questions put to the Assembly, Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess was interested in the role that microinsurance could play in these institutions as a financial protector in the event of the sickness or death of the contractor.