Lasting improvements for clients’ businesses, livelihoods and resilience
How can we ensure that our financial services help clients grow their businesses and farms while improving their overall wellbeing? How can we help them build the financial stability needed to withstand life’s shocks, whether a medical emergency, a climate event, or a sudden rise in inflation? How can we ensure that women have the same opportunities to thrive and prosper as their male counterparts?
These questions are at the heart of our impact strategy and our commitment to responsible finance. In 2025, we disbursed €520 million to underserved entrepreneurs and farmers. Our responsibility is to ensure that this financing translates into meaningful and lasting improvements in their businesses, livelihoods, and resilience.
Measuring and understanding our impact remains a priority. In 2026, we continued our partnership with 60 decibels, interviewing more than 1,700 clients through the Microfinance Inclusion Index, which benchmarked 65 financial service providers worldwide. The findings, some of which are presented in this report, help us identify where we can strengthen client protection and improve our products and services.
Reaching underserved populations remains central to our mission. We continued to expand initiatives targeting women, who represent 34% of our borrowers. Advans Cameroun launched a capacity-building program for women entrepreneurs, while Advans Côte d’Ivoire introduced a dedicated savings product and adapted collateral requirements to improve access to finance. In Ghana, AdvansHER continued to combine tailored financial services with financial education to support women-led businesses.
We also maintained our focus on financing agriculture in a viable and sustainable manner. At the end of 2025, Advans Tunisia was serving more than 12,700 farmers through adapted financing solutions. Advans Côte d’Ivoire continued supporting cocoa producers while diversifying into new agricultural value chains, and Advans Ghana disbursed loans to more than 3,100 women shea producers.
Providing high-quality, responsible financial services remains a key priority. In April 2026, Advans Ghana achieved Silver Certification in Client Protection Standards. Advans Cameroun, Congo, and Nigeria also completed pre-certification audits and are implementing action plans to achieve certification by early 2027.
As climate change increasingly affects our clients and portfolios, we advanced the analysis of physical climate risks across our portfolio and launched a new initiative to integrate climate risk assessment into our digital tools. At the client level, Advans Ghana piloted a recovery loan to help businesses rebuild after climate-related events, while climate adaptation training is being developed and deployed for farmers in Tunisia working in olive, cereal, and livestock sectors, and for cocoa and maize producers in Côte d’Ivoire.
We also made significant progress in embedding impact into governance and decision-making. Every subsidiary now has an Environmental and Social Performance Management Committee, providing regular oversight of impact initiatives and reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement across the Group.
Many of these achievements have been made possible through the support of our financial and technical partners. Their funding, expertise, and commitment enable us to pilot innovative solutions, strengthen our capabilities, and extend our reach to underserved communities.
Looking ahead, impact will remain a cornerstone of our 2030 Strategy. We have set ambitious objectives for gender inclusion, agricultural finance, climate resilience, and client protection. Achieving them will require an even stronger client-centric approach, using data and insights to better understand our clients’ needs, measure their progress, and continuously adapt our services. This is how we will help more clients build stronger businesses, greater resilience, and secure their futures.
Steven Duchatelle
Chief Executive Officer, Advans International
