The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has once again drawn international recognition for its leadership in gender equality. A short video highlighting the gender advocacy of the Bank’s outgoing President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina has clinched two prestigious global awards: a Bronze Telly Award at the 46th Annual Telly Awards and a Gold AVA Digital Award in 2025. The video, produced under the Bank’s flagship Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, underscores the growing global resonance of Africa’s gender empowerment narrative.
The 75-second tribute video, African Development Bank outgoing President Akinwumi Adesina honored as UN Women #HeForShe champion, was showcased during the 2024 United Nations General Assembly, where Dr. Adesina was celebrated alongside other global leaders advancing gender equality. The clip captures milestones from his presidency, including the creation and scaling of AFAWA, which has become one of the world’s largest financing programs dedicated to women entrepreneurs.
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Launched in 2019 and significantly expanded under Adesina’s leadership, AFAWA has disbursed over $1.33 billion in financing to women-led businesses across 45 African countries through a network of 185 partner financial institutions (AfDB, 2025). These figures highlight not only the breadth of the program but also its systemic impact on closing Africa’s $42 billion gender financing gap.
Women entrepreneurs represent nearly 40% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, yet they receive less than 20% of total financing available to SMEs (World Bank, 2024). AFAWA seeks to correct this imbalance by de-risking lending to women-led firms and providing capacity-building for both entrepreneurs and financial institutions.
Dr. Jemimah Njuki, AfDB’s Director for Gender, Women, and Civil Society, notes that the initiative “demonstrates how the Bank is transforming demographics into dividends.” The program is not just about finance; it’s about re-shaping financial systems to make them more inclusive and sustainable.
The Telly Awards, which honor excellence in video and television across all platforms, drew over 12,000 submissions from five continents in 2025, with winners including global giants like Pixar, ESPN, LinkedIn, and NATO. The AfDB’s inclusion in this cohort signals that African institutions are not only shaping development outcomes but also setting new standards in global storytelling.
Similarly, the AVA Digital Awards, managed by the U.S.-based Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, spotlight innovation in digital communication. The AfDB’s win in the “short-form web tribute” category reflects its ability to harness storytelling to communicate complex policy impacts in accessible, compelling ways.
AFAWA sits at the intersection of inclusive growth and resilient economies. Unlocking women’s access to finance is not simply a moral imperative; it is an economic necessity. The IMF estimates that closing gender gaps in labor markets could boost GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa by up to 35%.
Moreover, women entrepreneurs disproportionately operate in sectors central to sustainability; agriculture, clean energy, healthcare, and education. By targeting financing bottlenecks, AFAWA is indirectly strengthening Africa’s climate resilience and social cohesion.
Dr. Beth Dunford, AfDB’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, emphasized this linkage: “We aimed to visualize how gender mainstreaming has become central to the Bank’s presidency under Adesina, and how women beneficiaries are translating financing into real-world impact.”
Looking ahead, AfDB has pledged to scale AFAWA financing to $5 billion by 2030. This ambition reflects a broader shift in Africa’s development narrative: moving from aid dependency to financing ecosystems that unlock local enterprise, especially among women and youth.
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The sustainability challenge, however, lies in ensuring that these flows are equitably distributed and embedded in transparent governance frameworks. Financial institutions must continue to adapt their credit scoring, collateral requirements, and product design to ensure women are not left behind.
The dual awards mark more than just communication excellence. They reaffirm Africa’s ability to tell its own stories of progress, to shift perceptions from deficit to agency, and to present gender equality not as an add-on but as a driver of sustainability.
As Adesina himself has argued in multiple forums, “Africa will not develop by leaving half its population behind.” With AFAWA gaining international traction and recognition, the AfDB is positioning itself not only as a financier but as a catalyst for systemic change.
