We are slowly transitioning into a world where most countries will see female participation in their economies. This monumental paradigm shift cannot, and should not, be ignored.
The World Bank reports that female-owned enterprises in the United States are growing at more than double the rate of all other companies.
“While the number of women operating their own business is increasing globally, women continue to face huge obstacles that stunt the growth of their businesses, such as lack of capital, strict social constraints, and limited time and skill,” the World Bank explained in the Female Entrepreneurship Resource Point.
As women have less access to basic banking services such as checking and saving accounts, many rely on their savings, borrowings from family and friends, or micro-loans to finance their businesses. It is no wonder that women-owned businesses tend to be informal, home-based and small-scale, especially in traditional sectors like retail and services.Clearly, if we want women to break this glass ceiling, we need to relook at their access to adequate and long-term financing.
This data goes into the decision-making of neo banks, which are banks that entirely operate digitally, and other embedded finance providers to issue cards, disburse loans, credit or instalment schemes, and insurance products. For instance, some embedded finance enablers offer solutions in functional areas such as loyalty programmes, customer database management and scaling into e-commerce, allowing smaller entrepreneurs to focus on growing their business with these layers enabling that expansion.
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