Women receive 17.3% of value of traditional bank loans in Ethiopia, NBE scorecard says

Women received 17.3 percent of the total value of traditional bank loans reported in Ethiopia for 2025, despite accounting for 28.5 percent of such loans by number, according to a National Bank of Ethiopia scorecard.

The central bank’s second Women’s Financial Inclusion Scorecard covered 32 banks. The share of loans issued to women by number was close to the NBE’s 30 percent benchmark, but the substantially lower share by value indicates that women typically accessed smaller loans than men.

Women also held 32.5 percent of active transaction accounts and 31.3 percent of active digital financial-service accounts, both below the scorecard’s 50 percent benchmark. Within banks, women made up 32.1 percent of employees but 14.8 percent of senior managers, compared with an NBE benchmark of 25 percent for senior representation.

The scorecard found stronger results in some newer lending products: women accounted for 47.6 percent of the value of innovative loans reported by participating banks. The NBE cautioned that banks did not report the number of women receiving those products, limiting any assessment of how broadly the financing was distributed.

The banking sector’s average women’s financial-inclusion score rose to 62.65 out of 100 from 59.1 in the previous round. The underlying information was self-reported by participating institutions and is designed as a benchmarking and accountability measure rather than an enforcement finding.