Banking, Financial, and Risk Financing skills for women entrepreneurs

 

Thulo.Com and Enterprise for Management, Economic Reform and Gender Equality (EMERGE) organised webinars on ‘Banking, financial, and risk financing.
The objective of organising the webinars is to connect women producers/entrepreneurs with several banks and insurance companies so that they can avail of the government-subsidized loans and insurance schemes provided to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, said Dr. Mona ShresthaAdhikari, CEO at EMERGE.

The webinars provided a platform where Banks and Insurance companies could impart knowledge on digital finance, banking, and insurance along with government norms and their respective services to the women-owned/led MSMEs, as well as women home-based producers. RastriyaBanijya Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Nepal Investment Bank, United Insurance, and National Life and General Insurance (NLG) had participated in the webinar.

According to a press release issued by EMERGE, the findings of the pre-assessment survey conducted by the project before the training identified a gap between the need to approach banks and insurance companies and the hesitation in the participants to approach BFIs due to inadequate knowledge. Almost half of the women entrepreneurs/ producers had little knowledge on facilities provided by banks especially to women businesses and many were not aware of the different insurance schemes available for businesses, employees and stocks.
The online sessions are part of the training `Building Resilient Businesses’ provided to 120 plus women producers/entrepreneurs from 5 provinces, 11 districts, and 16 municipalities. Participants were interactive and suggested that more of such sessions should be organized to promote awareness of such government facilities provided via the banking and financial institutions, those that promote women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. The interaction was so intriguing that one of the entrepreneurs with disabilities was happy to know that banks provide loans to entrepreneurs with disabilities as well. Similarly, another entrepreneur found the sessions on insurance very informative and useful to all those who are in the agriculture sector.

Likewise, the Banks and Insurance companies expressed their interest to share information with wider communities and are happy to get an opportunity to participate in such platforms. Organizers believe that such events contribute to building resilient businesses particularly those of women producers/entrepreneurs. The event was organized by Thulo.com and Enterprise for Management, Economic Reform and Gender Equality (EMERGE) with the support of USAID’s Tayar Nepal – Improved Disaster Risk Management Project.