The Banking Executive Magazine - February 2025 Issue

Access to Credit ily and friends or microcredit, all of which have limitations and inhibit women’s businesses to innovate, grow and scale up. There is a need for women owned and run micro, small and medium sized enterprises to move beyond microfinance as many women-owned businesses need more varied services and prod- ucts, and larger loans than microfi- nance institutions can provide. To reverse the trend, governments have stepped up initiatives. But building on testimonies, public schemes aiming at supporting women entrepreneurship seem to re- main excessively cautious and bu- reaucratic in disbursing funds. Banks are essential key financial players but seem still reluctant to fund small businesses and start-ups and ask for strong personal guaran- tees. Women mention a lack of inter- est from banking representatives to gender issues, even when specific projects or products are promoted by their bank. Female entrepreneurs fur- thermore report being asked ques- tions that men would not be asked e.g. whether they intend to have a child that then impact their access to a loan. To develop the 4th industrial revolu- tion progress is necessary to increase the representation of women and it is key for financial institutions to under- stand the importance of women- owned businesses in their markets. Banks in the Arab world could reflect how to support women’s economic engagement and for women's entre- preneurship to become a pillar of the regional economy. Avenues of ac- tions include strengthening Public- Private Partnerships and the pooling of resources. Developing trainings and a better understanding of the banking sector of women’s needs and their contribution to the econ- omy. The development of digitized low-cost mobile applications to sup- port access to finance for microentre- preneurs. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 36 ISSUE 194 FEBRUARY 2025