Beyond Risk Perception: How Financial Institutions Can Profitably Serve Rural Women Facing Climate Stress
Webinar
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Rural women smallholder farmers are often perceived as too risky to lend to — but what if that perception is holding back both financial inclusion and sustainable business growth? These women are among the most vulnerable to climate shocks and stresses, yet they also represent a significant, underserved commercial opportunity for financial institutions.
Hosted by ABERA (Accelerating Business to Empower Rural Women in Agriculture) - a joint initiative of CGAP and IDH - this webinar brought together financial service providers, market facilitators, and sector experts to explore how financial institutions can design agri-finance products that are both commercially viable and genuinely responsive to the realities rural women face.
Drawing on human-centered design research conducted with BTFL and BRAC International, alongside market insights from Financial Sector Deepening Tanzania (FSDT), the session introduced four distinct profiles of rural women in Tanzanian value chains and open an honest conversation about what it would actually take to lend to them.
The discussion covered:
- What agri-finance solutions for last-mile women could look like in practice;
- How financial institutions can manage actual and perceived lending risks; and
- What investments, partnerships, and non-financial supports are needed to make this work at scale.
Panelists
Abdulrazak Hassan Ramadhani is the Deputy Head of Operations and now the Acting Head of Operations at BRAC Tanzania Finance Limited, where he leads nationwide microfinance operations and ensures strategic alignment across all branches. He manages a portfolio of over 450,000 clients across more than 200 branches, driving operational performance, portfolio quality, and client growth at scale.
With over 8 years of experience in the microfinance sector, Abdulrazak has held both senior leadership and field-level roles, building strong expertise in operations management, risk control, financial inclusion, and effective internal and external communications. In his role, he places high importance on clear, consistent, and impactful communication to enhance stakeholder engagement, staff coordination, and public awareness of BRAC's mission and initiatives.
Abdulrazak is deeply committed to strengthening sustainable microfinance systems that expand access to finance while maintaining strong portfolio discipline. He focuses on empowering underserved communities through scalable, efficient operations, and strategic communication that amplifies impact, builds trust, and promotes financial inclusion across Tanzania.
Mwombeki is an Investment Officer with the Agribusiness team at IFC. He has over 15 years of experience in agriculture and financial sectors in areas of finance and investments, policies, and sector development.
Apart from the World Bank related roles, his previous roles have included Head of Agriculture and Rural Finance at Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Tanzania (FSDT), where he helped to scale financial inclusion and investments to the agriculture, microfinance, and rural sectors.
Mwombeki was also Head of Product Development and Research at NMB Bank in Tanzania and led their efforts to develop new financial products and solutions for customers. He’s engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including banks, mobile network operators, health insurance providers, farmer organizations and cooperative societies, agribusinesses, agriculture sector bodies, investment funds, and government at different levels including regulators, policy bodies, and coordinators.
Mwombeki is a passionate financial services and economic development professional driven to impact growth. He is constantly learning and leveraging his experiences in commercial and investment banking, economic policy development and analysis, and agricultural and commodities markets structures and dynamics to help public and private organizations to innovate and to develop new partnerships, products, services, and solutions that are potentially impactful.
Happy is a multidisciplinary leader with a decade-long track record in technology, program management, corporate strategies and leadership. She has worked within the financial sector, energy sector, professional services and development sector. Among her diverse track record of achievements, Happy delivered numerous digital financial and information solutions leading local and international teams. She is passionate about the financial sector due to its transformative, influential and catalytic role in the economy as a source of finance and capital for growth at business and individual levels. At FSDT, Happy leads transformational interventions creating opportunities for women and youth to access and use quality financial solutions to improve their livelihood, wellbeing and empowerment.
Moderator
Edel Were is a Financial Sector Specialist supporting CGAP’s work on rural and agricultural livelihoods, which focuses on women and the critical roles they play in food and financial systems. Her work interrogates the design and delivery of financial services to support rural women in benefitting from emerging digital economies and investing in more resilient, climate-smart agriculture practices.
Prior to CGAP, Edel was a Senior Consultant and Co-Lead of the Education and Employment platform at Dalberg Advisors. Her work specialized on skills-building, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, agriculture and gender across Africa and Asia.
She has an MSc in International Social and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Financial Economics at Strathmore University. Edel is based in Paris, France.