The Kenyan government through the State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action and ImpactHER; Africa’s foremost NGO committed to empowering women entrepreneurs, African Union and ALX have pledged to accelerate action for Kenyan female entrepreneurs to help them maximise their potentials, add value to the economy and achieve business growth.

This pledge was made known at the ImpactHER’s 2025 International Women’s Day conference which was held at The Piano, Nairobi, Kenya in partnership with the African Union and ALX.

During her keynote speech, Jackline Makokha, Director, Gender, State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action noted that Kenyan female entrepreneurs are facing a lot of hurdles which have kept them from achieving business growth. In her words, “I want to urge Kenyan female entrepreneurs to step out more and offer themselves to getting into the murky waters of business. They should not limit themselves to SMEs alone but also aim for large business ideas as this will help them get empowered. The majority of the barriers facing our women are systemic. The policy framework of the various financial institutions is not favourable for women. For instance, what is required for Kenyan women to access financing is very limiting”.

“If a woman wants to take a loan for business, they would be needing collateral and in Kenya, collateral is measured in terms of assets such as land, which is not too accessible to women. When you look at the land ownership statistics in our country, not so many women own assets such as land in their own names. So, in terms of collaterals and other assets, our women struggle. This is why we are working with relevant stakeholders to see how to help these women scale at large”, she said.

Speaking at the event, ImpactHER’s representative, explained that the NGO is working with female entrepreneurs to help them scale despite the various challenges prevalent in Africa. “ImpactHER’s services are inclusive to all women entrepreneurs, focusing on their needs to grow scalable businesses. We have continued to partner with relevant institutions to offer our services to the women, including digital transformation, access to financing and other resources to grow their businesses”, she said.

Other resource persons from top institutions like Deloitte who spoke at the conference urged the women to adopt digital skills especially AI and data to help them grow their business and scale appropriately.