Across rural Africa, women rise before dawn, manage their households, tend to crops, and sell at market; yet they often remain the last to access credit, training, or tools. As Kofi Annan once said, “There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.” And nowhere is that truth more urgent than in agriculture.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, women make up over 50% of the agricultural workforce but receive less than 10% of available credit. This imbalance stunts growth, deepens poverty, and undermines global food security. Opportunity’s GROW program (Guaranteeing Rural Opportunities for Women) was created to close this gap by placing women at the center of rural finance and farming innovation.
What is GROW?
GROW is Opportunity International AgFinance’s initiative designed to expand access to training, capital, and opportunity for women smallholder farmers. More than a finance program, GROW equips women with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to lead more abundant, profitable, and climate-resilient farms—lifting their families and communities along with them.
It tackles systemic inequalities with long-term, integrated solutions designed to unlock women’s full economic potential in agriculture.
Why It Matters: The Barriers Women Face
Despite their central role in food production, women farmers continue to face major structural barriers such as:
- Lack of access to land and secure credit
- Unpaid care and domestic responsibilities
- Exclusion from training and market systems
- Climate disasters with fewer coping resources
- Restrictive cultural and financial norms
These barriers are not just unjust; they’re inefficient. When women farmers lack crop inputs, support, and voice, everyone loses. The food system weakens. Household incomes drop. Resilience to erratic weather shocks erodes.
How GROW Helps
GROW addresses these root challenges through an integrated, multi-pronged strategy:
- Tailored Agricultural Lending – Seasonal loans, group-based models, and flexible repayment terms that align with the realities of women farmers
- Blended Finance and Risk Sharing – Combining public and private capital to unlock credit for underserved women farmers
- Strengthening Local Financial Institutions – Equipping rural banks and cooperatives to better serve women with digital lending and gender-informed products and policies
- Digital Access and Innovation – Expanding credit scoring and mobile tools that enable women to transact, save, and borrow securely
- Reducing Barriers – Providing expert information on the need for lower minimum capital barriers and wider institutional reach
- Local Currency Financing – Lowering costs through donor-backed guarantees and hedging support
- Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLAs) – Organizing community-based savings groups that promote trust, financial literacy, and social support
GROW doesn’t just increase access to credit—it reshapes how rural women interact with the financial system.
Real Stories, Real Change
Lignet, Blantyre
After losing her husband, Lignet carried the burden of five dependents alone. Through GROW, she expanded her rice farm, launched a grocery business, and grew her goat herd. Now the chair of her VSLA, she mentors others and plans to buy land at a major market hub to expand even further.
The Women of Tilimbe, Malawi
In Dedza, women in the Tilimbe savings group use a smartphone-powered digital ledger to track contributions, take out loans, and support each other. They’ve invested in livestock, land, and future dreams, including a community-owned minibus.
Lydia and Ikoba, Uganda
Lydia became a Farmer Support Agent, training her neighbors to improve yields and manage credit. When she became pregnant, her husband Ikoba stepped in, continuing her work and proving that shared leadership transforms not just homes, but entire communities.
What Success Looks Like
Since launching in 2019, GROW has produced tangible results:
- 99% of women clients report greater household decision-making power
- 58% report increased earnings after receiving AgFinance training and support—a stat we are looking to continue to increase significantly
- Thousands have transitioned from subsistence to sustainable agriculture and small business ownership
GROW doesn’t treat women’s economic participation as an afterthought. It centers them as leaders in rural development. It redesigns financing to work for women’s realities; seasonal income, unpaid work, collective strength; and positions them as powerful agents of growth.
It’s not a project. It’s a platform for transformation.
Investing in Women for Lasting Change
When women gain equal access to finance, training, and opportunity, they don’t just grow crops: They grow economies. GROW proves that with the right support, women farmers can feed their families, lead their communities, and lift entire systems.
Join us in building a future where every woman farmer has the power to grow more, earn more, and lead more.
Learn more at AgFin.org
