NBC forum promotes access to finance for women entrepreneurs
Sabine Joukes, country director of Pact Cambodia, speaking to the forum about the importance of providing access to credit to women entrepreneurs. Supplied.
NBC forum promotes access to finance for women entrepreneurs
An event promoting access to finance for women entrepreneurs in the COVID-19 era took place in Phnom Penh last week.
It was undertaken by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Pact Cambodia, Khmer Enterprise, Swisscontact and Good Return as part of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Forum.
The forum shared a number of learnings and insights on relevant studies, information, services and resources.
It was designed to enable a friendly environment for entrepreneurship ecosystem key actors and stakeholders to share common interests in engaging in constructive and meaningful dialogue.
Financial institutions in particular are interested in being able to design financial products and payment schedules better adapted for young women entrepreneurs (YWEs).
The forum also explored potential linkages and collaborations among various sector actors in support of women entrepreneurs gaining better access to finance in the COVID-19 era.
Sabine Joukes, Chief of Party of WE Act and Country Director of Pact Cambodia, said that WE Act is a five-year project funded by USAID through Pact Cambodia that supports young women entrepreneurs in Cambodia’s urban centres to realize their path toward empowerment and success as entrepreneurs and leaders in their communities.
“We know that the entrepreneur sector is dominated by micro and small enterprises led by female entrepreneurs, who are often underserved. We believe that if women has access to the right information, skills, capital and social and business connections and if they have the personal confidence and engagement needed to take strategic action with those resources, they will be able to achieve their entrepreneurial goals and live the lives they choose.
She added that to achieve this ultimate goal, WE Act works in partnership with many diverse actors and stakeholders to support an entrepreneurship ecosystem that enables a friendly environment in which both young women entrepreneurs and youth can succeed in the marketplace.
“We want to make sure that all women entrepreneurs, registered or non-registered, formal or informal have ready access to the relevant financing they need. We are also looking to work with our partners in identifying entrepreneurs for whom providing a small or mini financial needs grant to could make all the difference in getting their business back on track,” Joukes said.
Rath Sovannorak, director-general of banking supervision of the NBC, said: “Financial inclusion plays an important role in poverty reduction and economic empowerment in Cambodia. Thus, promoting access to and the usage of affordable and well-regulated financial services has been set as one of NBC’s priorities. However, there do remain many challenges to overcome, particularly for women.”
“We would like to thank Pact Cambodia, Khmer Enterprise and USAID for their initiative in conducting this forum because it will contribute to boosting financial inclusion for women in general and for women entrepreneurs in particular,” added Sovannorak.
The NBC has set out to reduce the rate of women unable to access financial services from its current 27 percent to 13 percent.
Additionally. the NBC has set a target designated to growing the use by women of official financial services from the current 59 percent to 70 percent by the year 2025.
Reaching these goals is seen as key in helping improve the well-being of both Cambodian families as well as the sustaining the nation’s economic growth. Khmer Times
