Women entrepreneurs need particular financial support: experts

Image: Collected
Women entrepreneurs are actually demanding particular allocations of performing capital and other financial support from the government to recover from losses suffered from the Covid-19's fallout.

Most of these entrepreneurs have already been forced to downsize their businesses while others have shuttered businesses entirely, leading to increased unemployment.

Without government support, women entrepreneurs will never be able to stay on course, according to Selima Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI).

"The pandemic forced a huge number of female business owners to reduce their income," she said while conducting a webinar on the "Impact of Covid-19 on women business owners in Bangladesh" organised by the chamber yesterday.

Through the peak pandemic period among May and June, many businesses needed to be placed shut but the owners still possessed to pay rent, taxes, utility bills, salaries and so on.

Due to this fact, many female business owners faced social, economic and mental difficulties, including domestic violence, she said.

But despite the fact that the market has recovered to a particular extent, several women entrepreneurs have not had the opportunity to accomplish the same.

Simply because many foreign buyers cancelled their orders, which makes it difficult for the businesswomen to renew their trade licenses as the associated charges are high, Ahmad added.

Husne Ara Shikha, standard supervisor of the SME & Particular Programmes Department in Bangladesh Bank, said the central bank will not offer any special service with low rates of interest for women.

Regarding to her, there happen to be dedicated mortgage benefits for tiny and medium entrepreneurs (SME) with a 15 per cent quota for women.

Certain requirements also have to get met for women to safe and sound special loan features, Shikha added.

Besides, the central lender has up to now disbursed 6 per cent of a Tk 20,000 crore stimulus bundle among female entrepreneurs as the goal was only 5 per cent.

The general manager continued to make sure that action will be taken against commercial banks that harass loan-seeking women entrepreneurs.

Shikha also pointed out that the women entrepreneurs could have borrowed from another Tk 1,500 crore stimulus package available at three % interest.

However, no women business owners have requested this package, she explained.

"You will find a gap between girls and bankers as a result we ought to make an effort to minimise this gap and update women's skills and potential so that no bank may refuse them loans," she added.

Shikha also said there is the next opportunity in the IT sector for business owners who do not have a good trade licence because they would still be in a position to avail a Tk 10,000 mortgage through bkash.

Likewise, Md Mubarak Hossain, deputy general manager of the SME & Special Programmes Department, agreed that the allegations of women facing problems in availing SME loans had been true.

The central bank directed the country's loan providers to consider applications from female entrepreneurs regardless if they didn't have considerable transactions in the preceding 2 yrs, he said.

Through the pandemic, 27,657 girls have been brought under the refinancing scheme disbursing Tk 3,308 crore.

The ladies who availed this facility were all tiny entrepreneurs, Hossain added.

Various women entrepreneurs have been struggling to restart their businesses due to a lack of operating capital, said Sangita Ahmed, the chamber's senior vice president.

"With limited monetary and operational potential, women entrepreneurs have fallen right into a dire circumstances through the crisis," she added.

Ahmed also said during this time period, women faced problems in their households and suffered acute mental anxiety. 

Veena Vidyadharan, a fellow of the Consumer Unity & Trust Society found in Jaipur, India, said on an average, almost all female business owners incurred huge losses.

For the reason that they could not take any measures beforehand to greatly help cope with the many business-related challenges that came up amid the pandemic.

And so, these were forced to have loans from family members, non-federal government organisations and their sellers in anticipation of the yearly festivals but due to the pandemic situation, they cannot sell those products.

"In this article they faced a big loss but nonetheless had to pay back their loans with fascination," Vidyadharan stated, adding that many had to market their ornaments and different assets to create ends meet.

Women business owners from eight divisions informed that their export and import businesses had totally been halted because of border closures and airline flight cancelations.

They also alleged that there have been no special facilities for women entrepreneurs despite the fact that the federal government declared a stimulus bundle for businesspersons.

"That's why we happen to be facing concerns to take loans and this package can be not for women business owners of startups," they said.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

Tags :

Share this news on:

Previous Story

Trending Topics

Archive