A call for financial empowerment
Investing in women-owned and women-led enterprises holds the key to sustainable socio-economic growth. There is an urgent need to address the imbalance in gender diversity in corporations (although we are seeing some overall positive actions), obstacles to accessing financing options, and the lack of support for female business founders.
This year, for International Women’s Day, the United Nations has called for countries around the world to “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. This crucial call underlines the need to address the deficit in gender-equality measures as economies continue to grow.
The call also emphasises the imperative of prioritising women’s economic empowerment because a stark reality persists: There continues to be a wide economic disparity between men and women in many parts of the world. This disparity includes the commonly discussed wage gap, and a lack of access to capital and other critical financial resources. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the funding gap for women in the overall micro, small, or medium enterprise (MSME) sector amounts to US$1.7 trillion. Despite constituting 22% participation in micro ventures and 32% in small and medium enterprises, women entrepreneurs remain severely underbanked – prompting us to question how financial institutions can help close this gap and contribute to the solution.
