BTA2023 Josephine Anan-Ankomah, Managing Director of Ecobank Kenya, has urged women entrepreneurs to be bold in expanding their businesses despite fears of risk-taking. Speaking at the 2025 Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg (AFG) Memorial Lectures at the University of Ghana, she highlighted how fear, lack of financial literacy, and gender-biased financial systems prevent women from scaling their businesses.
Mrs. Anan-Ankomah emphasized that banks often fail to cater to women’s unique financial needs, creating barriers to accessing finance. She called for gender-specific financial policies, better representation of women in decision-making, and the promotion of female investors to break the cycle of underrepresentation in financial ecosystems.
She argued that empowering women financially is not only fair but also economically beneficial, as closing the gender financing gap could add $5 trillion to the global economy. For her contributions to banking and finance, the University of Ghana awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in Laws.
