
Increasing Women’s Access to Savings and Banking Services
Business Women Connect was born out of research showing that micro-savings products are one of the most impactful tools for women entrepreneurs to access in order to grow their businesses.
Business Women Connect was born out of research showing that micro-savings products are one of the most impactful tools for women entrepreneurs to access in order to grow their businesses.
Substantial research highlights a critical need for business skills training among owners of "mom and pop" shops in urban areas. Launched in July 2015, the Digitizing Mom and Pop Shops program was a two-year partnership between Citi Foundation and TechnoServe to increase the financial return and growth of small retail shops in Abuja, Nigeria.
Through a $1 million grant from the Walmart Foundation, TechnoServe helped raise the incomes of 6,000 Nigerian cashew farmers through training on good agronomic practices, farming as a business, and improved methods for harvest and post-harvest handling.
TechnoServe was an implementing partner in Propcom Mai-Karfi, a six-year program working to increase the incomes of 650,000 people in northern Nigeria, half of them women.
In parallel to the Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP), TechnoServe was a key implementer in the African Cocoa Initiative (ACI), which sought to institutionalize effective public and private sector models for sustainable productivity growth and improve food security on cocoa farms in West and Central Africa.