The Making Finance Work for Women Podcast
Women’s World Banking’s Making Finance Work for Women (MFWW) Podcast is the exclusive destination dedicated to unraveling the complexities and deepening the understanding of crucial issues and innovative solutions surrounding women’s financial inclusion. Join us as we explore the transformative power of finance, unlocking insights through expert conversations. The MFWW Podcast is sponsored by EY.
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Ep. 39: The Business of Better Health
<p>Women's health is essential for both individual wellbeing and economic progress. Poor health can limit women’s ability to work, save, run businesses, and absorb financial shocks. But the relationship also runs the other way: women entrepreneurs and innovators are often closest to the barriers women face in accessing health information, trusted products, quality medicines, and affordable care. </p> <p> </p> <p>In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, host Sonja Kelly explores women’s health through the lens of a woman entrepreneur, speaking with Abimbola Adebakin, Founder of Advantage Health Africa, about building myMedicines, a technology-enabled platfo...
Ep. 37: Welcome to Indonesia: What Women Are Teaching Us About Climate Adaptation
<p>As global leaders debate the future of climate adaptation, an important question remains: what does resilience look like for the women experiencing climate shocks in their daily lives? </p> <p>In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, Dr. Sonja Kelly speakers with Roikhanatun Nafi'ah, founder and CEO of Crustea Indonesia, a climate start-up in Indonesia that uses solar-powered aeration and smart monitoring technology to help small-scale fish and shrimp farmers improve productivity, lower operating costs, and reduce climate emissions. Through her story, we examine how climate disruptions shape livelihoods of women entrepreneurs, influence financial decisions, and affect long-term se...
Ep. 36: From Nano Business to Unicorn: What Women Entrepreneurs Need to Scale
<p>Women entrepreneurs are not short on ambition, ingenuity, or discipline. What too many lack is access to the capital, networks, visibility, and trust needed to start, sustain, and scale businesses on their own terms. </p> <p>In this special crossover episode of Making Finance Work for Women and Radically Yours, Dr. Sonja Kelly and Radhika Bajoria explore the continuum of women’s entrepreneurship, from nano businesses and informal enterprises to venture-backed founders and companies with the potential to become unicorns. </p> <p>The conversation examines what changes as women-owned businesses grow, and what stubbornly stays the same: underinvestment, biased ass...
Ep. 35: From Invisible to Investable: How Fintech Can Unlock Growth for Women Entrepreneurs
<p>Women entrepreneurs are engines of economic growth, yet millions remain excluded from formal financial systems because their businesses operate informally, their financial histories are invisible, and traditional financial products fail to reflect how they earn, save, and manage risk. In this episode, Dr. Sonja Kelly sits down with Sarah Corley, CEO of the Alliance of Digital Finance and Fintech Associations, to explore how fintech innovations including alternative data, digital identities, embedded finance, and AI are helping women-led businesses move from invisible to investable. Drawing on insights from digital finance ecosystems across Africa and Asia, Sarah shares what it will take t...
Ep. 34: Finance on the Frontlines: Serving Women Amid Crisis in Northern Nigeria
<p>As insecurity and displacement continue to reshape northern Nigeria, how can financial systems adapt to serve those who need them most—especially women entrepreneurs and households navigating daily uncertainty? In this episode, our host Sonja Kelly has two conversations with a policymaker, Dr. Aisha A. Isa-Olatinwo, Director of the Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and a financial services provider, Ikemefula Nwachukwu, Head Financial Inclusion Services, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, to explore what it takes to deliver meaningful financial support in fragile contexts. From rethinking risk and liquidity to deploying flexible credit, digital p...
Ep. 33: AI Is Evolving Finance. Are Protections Keeping Pace?
<p>In this episode, AI and Deepfake Cartographer Henry Ajder joins us to unpack what rapid advances in AI mean for trust, safety, and financial inclusion. As tools like deepfakes and voice cloning become more sophisticated, synthetic identity fraud and impersonation scams are becoming easier to scale and harder to detect. These risks are especially significant for people entering the financial system for the first time. When trust breaks early, adoption slows, and progress toward financial inclusion can reverse.</p> <p>We also explore how technology-enabled gender-based harm, including harassment and impersonation, is shaping how women participate online, and why t...
Ep. 32: Instant Money, Real Barriers: Can Tokenized Payments Deliver for Low-Income Women?
<p>Tokenized payments promise instant settlement, near-zero transaction costs, and fewer intermediaries—but can they actually work for low-income women and women-led MSMEs operating on thin margins and informal cash flows? </p> <p>In this episode, we’re joined by Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer at Circle, to unpack the real potential—and real constraints—of stablecoins and tokenized cash. </p> <p>We explore whether faster, cheaper money movement can meaningfully improve liquidity, reduce remittance and transfer fees, and increase economic certainty for women entrepreneurs—or whether structural, regulatory, and access barriers still stand in the way. </p> <p>This conversation cu...
Ep. 31: Something to Buzz About: When Inclusion Becomes Economic Opportunity
<p></p> <p>In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we speak with Monika Shukla, Co-Founder & CEO of Humble Bee, on how inclusive business models can unlock economic opportunity for women at the margins. </p> <p> </p> <p>Monika unpacks how she is transforming India’s beekeeping sector by integrating women—particularly landless and forest-fringe dwellers—pairing financial access with skills, market linkages, and ownership. With a bold goal of building one million sustainable livelihoods by 2028, this conversation offers practical insights on how to design, fund, and scale models that move beyond reach to real economic opportunity—where women are no...
Ep. 30: A Year-End Special: Our Biggest Reveal, Boldest Lessons, and a 2026 Sneak Peek
<p>Episode 30 is a celebration. Women’s World Banking just crossed our most audacious milestone yet! Take a step back with us to reflect on the stories, ideas, and breakthroughs that shaped our past episodes. Through curated moments from leaders across the globe, we revisit the lessons that have pushed the sector forward—from reshaping consumer protection to unlocking capital for women’s businesses to building climate resilience. </p> <p>We then look ahead to 2026 and what topics are on the horizon for The Making Finance Work for Women Podcast and what real-world solutions are top-of-mind for us to continue building an inclu...
Ep. 29: The Hidden Cost of Violence: How Finance Can Protect Women
<p>The price of violence is economic. The solution can be, too. Behind many closed doors, violence is an everyday reality—especially for women in low-income countries. For millions, safety, autonomy, and economic participation are undermined long before they ever reach a bank branch or mobile wallet screen. </p> <p>In this Vault Release, we revisit a powerful conversation with Dr. Anita Kemi DaSilva-Ibru, Founder of the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), whose work in Nigeria sits at the forefront of addressing gender-based violence with a survivor-centered lens. </p> <p>One in three women globally experience physical or sexual viol...
