{"id":11050,"date":"2025-12-17T12:58:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=8682"},"modified":"2026-02-05T02:00:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:00:53","slug":"designing-capital-that-truly-fits-women-led-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/featured\/designing-capital-that-truly-fits-women-led-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing capital that truly fits women-led businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignnone size-full wp-image-8683\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27936%27%20height%3D%27626%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20936%20626%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27936%27%20height%3D%27626%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Picture16-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"936\" height=\"626\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>At this year\u2019s AVPA Annual Conference in Nairobi, Afrishela\u2019s Senior Investment Officer <strong>Jane Mbinya<\/strong> stood firmly for women entrepreneurs who are too often left out of traditional finance. On the panel <em>\u201cCapital that Fits: Exploring Impact-Aligned Investment Models for SMEs,\u201d<\/em> she challenged investors to move beyond rigid credit scoring and one-size-fits-all products.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Jane shared how Afrishela\u2019s approach looks at women founders and their businesses in a more holistic way. Rather than excluding them as \u201ctoo risky,\u201d Afrishela uses flexible tools such as staggered disbursements, revenue-linked repayments and strong post-investment support to manage risk while backing growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Meet the entrepreneurs:<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8684\" style=\"width: 515px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8684\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-8684\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27505%27%20height%3D%27374%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20505%20374%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27505%27%20height%3D%27374%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Picture1-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"505\" height=\"374\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nyandia Kamawe of MokoMaya &#8211; Upcycling glass waste into high-value home d\u00e9cor pieces, creating dignified jobs for women and youth through circular economy innovation.<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_8685\" style=\"width: 524px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8685\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-8685\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27514%27%20height%3D%27390%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20514%20390%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27514%27%20height%3D%27390%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Picture2-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"514\" height=\"390\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8685\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Mumbua Kilonzo of Dalani Farm Produce Limited \u2013 Driving value addition in the dairy sector, supporting 1,000+ farmers and improving rural incomes.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_8686\" style=\"width: 512px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8686\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-8686\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27502%27%20height%3D%27438%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20502%20438%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27502%27%20height%3D%27438%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Picture3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"438\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8686\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mwihaki Njehu of Grace Rock Farms &#8211; Strengthening food security in Kenya by supplying clean, certified potato seed to 4,000+ smallholder farmers.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>They showed what is possible when \u201ccapital that fits\u201d meets women with bold ideas. More than thirty investors and ecosystem partners engaged directly with them, starting conversations that could grow into real deals. They represented three very different, yet equally powerful, stories of women reshaping Africa\u2019s economy from the ground up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At this year\u2019s AVPA Annual Conference in Nairobi, Afrishela\u2019s Senior  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[742,4,81,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-featured","category-highlight","category-womens-economic-and-social-advancement-highlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}