Financial inclusion in developing economies remains a major concern nowadays, both for
national policymakers and international stakeholders. For a country like Cameroon, aspiring to
an emergence in 2035, the key challenge is to identify and overcome obstacles in financial
access for vulnerable sectors or groups, such as female entrepreneurs. Over the last decades, Cameroon authorities have successfully achieved a number of important milestones in the pursuit of gender equality, especially in the areas of education, health, employment and political participation.
However, despite Government efforts to promote female entrepreneurship, the ability of
female to become entrepreneurs remains at a very low 5%, while the rates of firms with female
top managers is at 10% and those with female participation ownership is at 16%. In this project, a team of local researchers aim to assess the effects of financial frictions faced by female entrepreneurs on macroeconomic outcomes in Cameroon.
