THE INVESTMENT CASE FOR AFRICA’S DISPLACED WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
There are 44 million forcibly displaced individuals across Africa – a powerful workforce, consumer base, and pool of entrepreneurial talent. Their combined spending power is estimated at US$82 billion – more than Ghana’s entire annual GDP (approximately US$ 76 billion in 2023).
Displaced women entrepreneurs embody resilience and determination. Despite bearing the brunt of displacement crises, they are launching businesses, repaying loans, creating jobs, and fueling local economies – often while navigating legal restrictions, limited mobility, and exclusion from financial systems not built for them. Yet they remain largely invisible to investors and are consistently locked out of capital, formal markets, and national economic plans.
We believe there is an opportunity to move beyond empathy and focus on action by recognizing displaced women not as beneficiaries, but as economic actors building Africa’s future. Across Africa, some of the most resilient and effective entrepreneurs are displaced women. With forced displacement at an all-time high and economies under pressure to grow inclusively, the case for investing in displaced women has never been more urgent.
