IFC: $4.2B unmet credit for Kingdom’s businesswomen
29 August 2019 | 23:21 ICT
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has said Cambodian women entrepreneurs continued to struggle with limited access to financial loans for business expansions.

The IFC claimed in a report published last week that the prevalent belief that women entrepreneurs in Cambodia are less outgoing and have a lack of leadership skills and the required initiative to run a business is a misconception.

The report said 90 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by women were profitable last year.

However, the IFC found that only three per cent of women entrepreneurs have access to formal credit from microfinance institutions and banks. It estimated that the unmet demand for credit from women entrepreneurs is currently $4.2 billion – a figure that’s equivalent to almost 63 per cent of Cambodia’s national buget of $6.7 billion for this year.

“Most women in the country use their funds to start a business or rely on informal sources and savings to expand their businesses,” the report said.

The study found that disparities in social gender norms and access to education in Cambodia continue to create a barrier for women in accessing markets and information, as well as causing other issues with operating businesses.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ ... inesswomen

Kinda strange for them to address credit not utilized when the microfinance situation is oversaturated and teetering on collapse. Maybe the fact that many families in the villages rely on steady income provided by hard working women is what keeps the families afloat and paying off current MFL. The risk of starting a business with a new loan (more debt) and potentially no income/rice money for the family is too great.

Novel Bond Aims To Boost Livelihoods Of Women In South And Southeast Asia
By Forbes - September 1, 2019

Low-income women in South and Southeast Asia face a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Few have a formal bank account. Women farmers in Asia work more hours per week in the field than men, but earn much less. With little or no access to electricity, they’re exposed to toxic fumes from kerosene lamps and stoves. The list goes on.

Those are some of the problems IIX is trying to address with its Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB). In 2017, the Singapore-based social impact finance pioneer introduced its first $8 million WLB, which pooled together a group of impact enterprises to issue a collective bond aimed at improving women’s economic opportunity. IIX’s proprietary impact assessments were used to measure the social impact and financial viability of the borrowers.

In full: https://www.forbes.com/sites/annefield/ ... east-asia/