Women play a vital role in society. In addition to their responsibilities to the family and, taking care of the children in particular, they also oversee all home affairs and provide comfort to members of the family. Such tasks are valued before the Almighty, society and country. But because of her need for income to suitably support the family and provide a happier and comfortable lifestyle for her children, over and above the contribution made by her the head of the family, she makes some time to run a small business from home.
But such enterprising women do need a bit of initial funding support, which is available in many developing societies. In emerging economies, women entrepreneurs are assisted by cooperatives that provide financial products and services to them. For example, in Peru, a Latin American country whose capital is Lima, only 14 per cent of the local population (54 per cent of them being women) have access to financial products. This disparity can perhaps be also found in Gulf societies, where many women have the ability to be entrepreneurs but face challenges in securing their funding needs, particularly in the form of bank financing.
Today, in the post-pandemic era, members of the same family find themselves in need of funding support to revive their collapsed businesses at a time when jobs are difficult to come by. It has become more important than ever to promote the financial inclusion of the single family by empowering women who seek a better life for themselves and their families in the community through entrepreneurship. Opportunities should be given to women homemakers looking to generate a new income stream by pursuing an entrepreneurial activity from home. Financial institutions should be forthcoming in providing funding support for such women at minimal interest. Indeed, corporates should look at channelling part of their CSR allocations towards this category of women.
Today, there are several institutions in the world that assist vulnerable women and men to enable them to be productive members of society. These initiatives promote growth and innovation, reduce poverty, unemployment and close gender gaps.
Financial institutions should be encouraged to provide advisory services to female entrepreneurs as part of their empowerment. Such institutions should look at the experience of international financial bodies that operate in many countries of the world, especially in Latin America and Africa, with the goal of promoting entrepreneurship among women in low-income sections of the community.
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