After four decades in banking, spanning local, international and pan-African institutions, Foluke Alakija has distilled a clear lesson from her career: Nigerian women do not lack talent or drive, they lack access to finance and the knowledge to use it.

Alakija’s journey began at First City Monument Bank, where she spent 10 years in corporate banking before moving to Citibank Nigeria. There, she managed major oil and gas clients and later top multinationals, rising to Vice President. Senior roles at Ecobank followed, including acting Deputy Managing Director, where she oversaw a portfolio in excess of N1tn and gained a continent-wide view of African business.

Despite her success in what she describes as “largely a man’s world,” Alakija says the turning point came when she began engaging closely with female entrepreneurs after leaving Ecobank. Many of the women she met were running viable businesses but struggled to answer basic questions about turnover, cash flow or receivables. Others were shut out of credit because family assets were in their husbands’ names or because of outright bias from lenders.

“The problem was not their potential,” she observed. “It was access – to knowledge, to collateral, to fair consideration.” Research into global models led her to Enat Bank in Ethiopia, a women-focused institution that convinced her a similar approach could work in Nigeria.

The result is Mayden Microfinance Bank, a female-focused institution built after a six-year journey that survived the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, regulatory changes and a strategic pivot from a planned regional commercial bank to a microfinance licence. Backed by cooperative investment from women and other investors, Mayden is designed, in her words, as “a financial legacy where women feel ownership and belonging.”

Mayden’s products reflect that philosophy. The bank offers structured savings plans for domestic staff, loans secured with jewellery for short-term needs, and a savings empowerment fund through which women pool resources to provide nano-loans to others. Seventy per cent of its portfolio is dedicated to women, with a strong emphasis on cashflow-based lending rather than traditional collateral.

For Alakija, professionalism, integrity and discipline remain non-negotiable. But so too does empathy. “Sustainable empowerment requires a sustainable institution,” she says. “What women need is not charity. They need access, respect and a system that believes in their capacity to build.”