In this interview with Capital’s Groum Abate, Raliat Sunmonu, Vice President for Middle East and Africa at Accion Advisory, discusses the organization’s push to expand inclusive finance in Ethiopia through partnerships with banks, fintechs and other local actors. She highlights efforts to support women-led MSMEs, refugees and smallholder farmers, while also pointing to the policy and infrastructure changes needed to make digital finance more accessible, responsible and commercially sustainable. Excerpts;
Capital: What is Accion’s core mission in Ethiopia, and how does it fit into the broader goal of financial inclusion in East Africa?
Raliat Sunmonu: Accion’s work in Ethiopia is linked to our broader mission of creating a fair and inclusive economy globally, where all customers have access to meaningful, affordable financial and other services. In Ethiopia, this means building on the great strides the country has made in the last decade or so in building a stronger digital financial services ecosystem to collaborate with local partners in accelerating the delivery of services to long-underserved customers like micro and small businesses, young women, and forcibly displaced persons. Working with a variety of local partners – such as banks, fintechs, and digital platforms – we tailor proven solutions and methodologies to the Ethiopian contexts and customer realities and deepen the capabilities of these service providers to see and serve these customers sustainably. Through our work, we aim to build lasting economic resilience of excluded or underserved customers who will help power the country’s economic future for decades to come.
Capital: How has Accion tailored its approach to Ethiopia’s specific context—such as its large MSME sector, refugees, and digital‑finance landscape?
Raliat Sunmonu: Our model in Ethiopia replicates Accion’s successful approach elsewhere—rooted in deep understanding of the market, co-creation and strategic partnerships with local service providers, and enabling systems-level changes through meaningful engagement with the ecosystem. In Ethiopia, where access to formal finance for microenterprises remains a significant challenge, Accion is bypassing traditional barriers by helping financial service providers (FSPs) transition to digital-first, embedded models. Rather than offering financial services as standalone products, we integrate them directly into the “business as usual” workflows of marginalized groups, including refugees and smallholder farmers. For instance, in our work with refugee-led nano-retail businesses and urban micro-retailers in Addis Ababa, we utilize “closed-loop” inventory solutions. This approach provides entrepreneurs with essential stock and supplies through a digital ecosystem rather than traditional cash disbursements, significantly easing the burden of capital management for women business owners. By utilizing alternative data, such as order patterns and transaction histories on B2B platforms, to build tailored profiles, we enable FSPs to provide essential financial tools to “thin-file” customers who often lack the documentation to meet rigid traditional requirements. Ultimately, this modality leverages existing supply chains to deliver more accessible, lower-cost financial solutions that are designed to meet the specific economic realities of the Ethiopian market.
Capital: Can you describe the innovation‑hub partnership between Accion, Dashen Bank, and Mastercard and what it aims to achieve for Ethiopian MSMEs, especially women‑owned businesses?
Raliat Sunmonu: The innovation hub partnership between Dashen Bank, Accion, and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth is a collaborative initiative designed to expand digital financial services for Ethiopia’s MSMEs, with a strong emphasis on supporting women-owned businesses. Dashen is one of Ethiopia’s leading financial institutions, with a track record of innovation and service delivery. The innovation hub aims to deepen the Bank’s innovation DNA and build new capabilities and commercially-viable solutions and services that address the needs of micro and small businesses, without sacrificing the Bank’s profitability and leadership in Ethiopia’s financial services sector.
The innovation hub is developing tailored digital banking products and services that help small businesses transition from cash-based operations into the formal digital economy. Accion is supporting the Bank to leverage new approaches and partnerships, using alternative data sources to create more inclusive credit-scoring models that better reflect the realities of MSMEs, especially women-led enterprises that may not have traditional collateral or documented credit histories. By combining technology, research, and strategic partnerships, the initiative seeks to improve financial inclusion, increase access to working capital, and strengthen the resilience and growth potential of Ethiopian small businesses. More broadly, the Accion-Dashen Bank partnership reflects one example in a long-term effort by both parties to build a more inclusive digital financial ecosystem in Ethiopia, where MSMEs, and particularly women-owned businesses, can participate more fully in economic growth and the digital economy.
Capital: How are you working with fintechs like Kifiya to use alternative data and digital platforms to reach underserved groups, including women and refugees?
Raliat Sunmonu: Building on 65 years of global experience in unlocking inclusive growth, Accion provides our Ethiopian fintech partners, such as Kifiya, with a deep pool of technical expertise in digital transformation, gender-inclusive digital financial services and credit risk management. Rather than simply delivering high-level reports, we apply a ‘hands-on’ advisory approach to help partners identify opportunities to better see and serve groups like small-scale women entrepreneurs, sustainably. Our proprietary tools help partners embed new capabilities in areas such as responsible financial product design and customer engagement strategies, and provide capacity-building support to customers to enable appropriate usage and long-term adoption of partner solutions. A critical component of our partnership is our focus on women-intentionality; we work internally with partners like Kifiya to ensure their products, messaging, and delivery channels are purposefully designed to overcome the unique barriers women face, and help them measure the impact of such approaches on their business and social goals.
Capital: What measurable impact has Accion seen so far in expanding access to finance for smallholder farmers, women entrepreneurs, and urban shopkeepers in Ethiopia?
Raliat Sunmonu: Accion measures impact across several dimensions including end customer impact, reflected in metrics such as improved trust and confidence in utilizing financial services, and increased revenue and sales. Our impact in Ethiopia is defined by its success in proving that traditionally “unbankable” segments can be successfully integrated into the formal economy through intentional product design. By launching and scaling targeted pilots, so far, we have demonstrated clear pathways to financial inclusion for three distinct groups:
- Smallholder Farmers: In the Sidama region, we have provided vegetable farmers, who often lack formal documentation and financial visibility, with the digital tools and visibility needed to secure essential inputs and inventory.
- Refugee Entrepreneurs: In the camps of Gambella, we have established a proven use case for “closed-loop” financing, enabling refugees to build sustainable livelihoods through inventory-based credit rather than traditional cash loans.
- Urban Shopkeepers: Across Addis Ababa, we have empowered small Suqe owners by creating digital footprints for their businesses, allowing these essential community pillars to move from the shadows into the formal financial ecosystem.
Beyond individual success stories, our measurable impact lies in the creation of a replicable blueprint for alternative credit assessment. We have successfully helped move these marginalized groups from invisibility to digital visibility, showing the broader financial sector that with the right data-driven approach, smallholder farmers and micro-entrepreneurs are not just bankable, but essential drivers of Ethiopia’s economic future.
Capital: How do you evaluate whether these digital‑finance products are actually improving livelihoods, rather than just increasing credit access?
Raliat Sunmonu: Accion measures the impact of financial services on individuals’ and households’ financial health through tangible social and economic shifts in a user’s life. We do this through our own product impact assessments as well as in collaboration with independent research organizations and third parties. There are real, tangible examples from Accion’s work that demonstrate how digital financial services can contribute to the financial health of individuals and their households. One example is the 2025 60 Decibels MFI Index Report, which looks at the experience of almost 25,000 microfinance customers from 39 countries and 89 institutions, including several Accion portfolio companies. The report shows that Accion’s MFI partners generally perform strongly on business impact, quality of life, and resilience, with resilience gains especially pronounced for women. Another example: in 2018 Accion and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, initiated a program to support the digital enablement of micro and small businesses globally. During the first four years, we supported 56 institutions (9 financial service providers and 47 fintechs) to reach over 4 million microentrepreneurs through digitally-enabled financial and other services. Our findings show that nearly 80 percent of digital finance users interviewed across five countries reported an increase in their capacity to manage financial challenges, such as repaying their loans on time or accessing credit for their needs. Globally, women-owned micro and small businesses also reported significant improvements in their financial health over a 12-month period, with more than 70 percent reporting that the digital products delivered through the program contributed to this improvement. Digitalization can significantly improve the cost, relevance, and variety of financial services available to low-income customers, helping to build resilience to climate events and other economic shocks.
Capital: How are you specifically supporting women‑led MSMEs in Ethiopia, and what are the main barriers they still face in accessing finance and markets?
Raliat Sunmonu: In Ethiopia, women-led MSMEs still face systemic hurdles, most notably a significant collateral gap and a lack of formal financial footprints, with only 39% of women holding formal bank accounts compared to 55% of men. These challenges are exacerbated by weak digital infrastructure and cultural norms, particularly in more rural areas outside of major cities. Accion takes a holistic approach to mainstreaming gender-intentional practices in financial services: identifying opportunities and business models that are women-friendly and working with a variety of service providers – from traditional banks to digital platforms – to re-engineer how they see and serve women; creating content and strategies that help women build trust, agency and capabilities required for using financial services and plugging in to the formal economy, and building clear, repeatable cases that serve as “demonstrable models” that other players in the industry can replicate or scale, thereby crowding in the needed investment, innovation and capacity needed to drive the inclusive finance sector.
Capital: What role does your work with refugees in Ethiopia play in integrating them into the local economy and financial system?
Raliat Sunmonu: Accion’s work with refugees in Ethiopia (and elsewhere) aims at nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit and skills of forcibly displaced communities and supporting them as they strive to become economic contributors instead of passive aid recipients. In Ethiopia, we worked with urban refugees in Addis Ababa, and in the Jewi and Tierkidi settlement camps in the Gambela region; beginning by providing refugee women with essential business training — covering everything from launching door-to-door retail ventures to scaling existing micro-enterprises like traditional tea and coffee houses. To bridge the financial gap, we have pioneered an innovative “closed-loop” credit model in partnership with global FMCG giant Unilever, a leading fintech, and local commercial banks. Under this system, entrepreneurs receive essential inventory and raw materials — such as flour or tea — on credit, allowing them to manage their cash flow effectively without the need for upfront capital. These transactions are facilitated by local banks that ensure distributors are paid on time, while refugees repay their credit through a network of tailored cash-in/cash-out agents specifically onboarded near the camps. This model not only builds a vital financial footprint for “thin-file” individuals but also fosters a sustainable entrepreneurial mentality, with many participants becoming repeat users who consistently expand their businesses and strengthen their local economies.
Capital: In your view, what kind of policy and regulatory changes are needed in Ethiopia to make digital‑finance solutions more inclusive and responsible?
Raliat Sunmonu: There has been significant — and accelerated — progress since the first national financial inclusion strategy (NFIS) was introduced a decade ago, along with enabling regulations and initiatives. We’ve seen access to formal financial services more than double, digital financial services bringing new entrants, and the proliferation of innovative services driving improved benefits for customers from rural farmers to micro-retailers; all spurred by digital infrastructure building blocks like the digital ID (Fayda), smartphone penetration, and interoperable payment systems. Despite these leaps, persistent inclusion gaps remain, and the next phase of financial inclusion initiatives need to focus on addressing these:
- Low-income households, rural populations, and women continue to be disproportionately disadvantaged when it comes to access and usage of digital financial services, due to systemic barriers including low literacy, weak digital infrastructure and a lack of national identification.
- Whilst peer-to-peer digital payments and mobile money use is increasing—particularly in urban areas, digital payment adoption is still generally low often due to affordability issues on the part of the customer, and a dearth of strong, commercially viable use cases for B2B and B2C payments.
- Continued strengthening of the market infrastructure to deepen capital mobilization and catalyze investments in key sectors and resources.
Capital: How does Accion engage with Ethiopian regulators, banks, and fintechs to shape a more inclusive financial‑inclusion ecosystem?
Raliat Sunmonu: We work with service providers such as banks and fintechs to identify and capitalize on opportunities to deliver more inclusive financial services to customer segments that have been typically un- or under-served. We develop, integrate, and expand the distribution of useful services leveraging technology. Through our pilots, research, and demonstration models, we help build proof points for regulators and other stakeholders to support the rollout of meaningful policies and strategies. We also use convenings — both regional and global as Financial Inclusion Week and the Responsible Finance Forum, to bring together regulators and other stakeholders to discuss topical issues and exchange practical, meaningful insights relevant to their markets.
Capital: What are the next‑phase priorities for you in Ethiopia over the next three to five years?
Raliat Sunmonu: We’ve built a strong foundation over the last few years of great partnerships, engagements, and end customer impact. We look forward to continuing to be a part of Ethiopia’s impressive economic development journey, in even bigger and more impactful ways.
