Across Africa’s private capital ecosystem, women hold 33% of investment committee seats. But women-led startups receive under 1% of startup funding. What explains this disparity between representation and available capital, and how can it be corrected?

Dalberg Associate Partner Chimdi Onwudiegwu led a workshop at the recent Africa Financial Summit in Angola around this very question. She shares her thoughts in this interview with Arise News: “One of the key things is ensuring that the financial system is working for women. We know that in Africa women don’t have titles as much as men. Even if they jointly own land with their husbands, they’re not on the titles. Are the collateral requirements the same? How do you determine risk assessment? Also, there are different segments of women-owned businesses, from microenterprises to VC type of businesses that have the potential to be 10x in the future. How do you think about finance that is meeting the women-owned businesses at the stage they are at and then moving them, especially from the informal to the formal over time?”

Dalberg was a knowledge partner for Women In, an initiative of the Africa Financial Summit (AFIS) that focuses on women in the financial sector. Read Dalberg’s Women In thought leadership here and here.