The banks and non-bank financial institutions in the country only meet around 40 per cent of the women entrepreneurs’ demand for finance in small and medium enterprises sector. A study on market potential and accelerating finance for women SME entrepreneurs in Bangladesh revealed this on Wednesday. International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group conducted the study the last two years with financial assistance from Canadian government aiming to map the potential opportunity in facilitating finance to women SMEs in Bangladesh and estimate the current financing gap. The study shows that the overall demand for finance among women-owned SMEs is estimated to be approximately Tk 9,975 crore. But against the demand, the study shows, the total finance channelled by the banks and non-bank financial institutions to the women SME entrepreneurs is estimated to be Tk. 3,968 crores, meaning 60.2 per cent need remaining unmet. The study finds that the state-owned commercial banks contributed only 5 per cent while the private commercial banks contributed 83 per cent of the total finance to the women SME entrepreneurs. The study also finds that women SMEs constituted only 3-4 per cent of the total SME lending portfolio across public and private financial institutions, which was far below the share of 15 outlined in Bangladesh Bank’s refinance scheme. Senior financial sector specialist of World Bank Group Ananya Wahid Kader, talking to a group of journalists on the study report at a city hotel on Wednesday, said that their study findings indicated that the finance requirement among women SME entrepreneurs in Bangladesh was enormously unmet. She said although women constituted half of the population in Bangladesh, their presence in SME sector is still insignificant as out of the 46.8 per cent self-employed citizens only 8.3 per cent are women. Ananya said for achieving the target of becoming a middle-income nation by 2021 Bangladesh must have to accelerate women entrepreneurship. She said that the IFC conducted the study to help the financial institutions formulating proper strategy to reduce the present financing gap between men and women SME entrepreneurs. The World Bank Group’s senior financial sector specialist said that in the study they identified the major challenges faced by women SME entrepreneurs in availing finance from financial institutions. She said that a survey on 500 women SME entrepreneurs across 12 districts in Bangladesh – Dhaka, Tangail, Gazipur, Rajshahi, Bogra, Rangpur, Chittagon, Comilla, Khulna, Jessore, Barishal and Sylhet– was conducted for the study. Of the surveyed women, she said, 88 per cent expressed dissatisfaction with the loan application process during the survey. Ananya said that they also found 76 per cent women entrepreneurs not aware of any government or bank instituted scheme for women owned SMEs while it was found that the average loan size for women-owned SMEs was 47 per cent less than the amount financed for male-owned SMEs. The IFC conducted in-depth interview of women SME entrepreneurs, bankers and government officials and used the census data for its study. Head of communication of IFC in Bangladesh Towheed Feroze was present during the short briefing on the study report.
