Ms. Emanuela Gregorio is an Economist specialized in SME financing. She has more than 10 years of professional experience working in international development with a focus on Africa. She has been responsible for identifying, appraising, implementing and supervising projects in different sectors with a focus on SMEs, mainly agriculture and manufacturing. She has consistently integrated a digital economy perspective in her work and promoted platform technologies to increase financial inclusion and facilitate trade through e-commerce. She has extensive experience in conducting research, developing partnerships and mobilizing financial resources through private and public channels. In her effort to increase access to finance for SMEs, she builds on her experience of managing a line of credit and today increasingly works with Private Equity and Impact Funds to support the growth of Africa’s businesses.
Ms. Gregorio currently works at the African Development Bank Group where she is spearheading the Bank’s engagement targeting the creative industries through the flagship initiative entitled FashionomicsAfrica. She has conceptualized the initiative and mobilized public and private resources to scale up its activities. The program aims at attracting foreign direct investments (FDIs) and increase Africa’s participation in the global textile, apparel and accessories value chains. The main objective is to support the growth of women and youth owned/led SMEs in the African fashion industry - from cotton farmers to retail stores - and build a “Made in Africa”-brand. She has developed a unique multi-stakeholder partnership for this initiative that ranges from Google Africa to Afreximbank, Trade and Development Bank to Parson School of Fashion. Ms. Gregorio holds a master’s degree with honours in Economics from the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and deepened her knowledge on SME financing, thanks to the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.