Women entrepreneurs struggle for funding in India

Friday, March 14, 2014

A majority of women entrepreneurs in India cannot access institutional finance for many reasons, including the fact that fewer of them have title rights on property that can be used as collateral.

There’s also a general aversion by financial institutions to fund high-risk small businesses, experts say.

India has an estimated three million women-owned enterprises that employ over eight million people and constitute about 10% of all small businesses in the country. Only 27% of these have access to institutional finance, said an International Finance Corporation (IFC) study released on Tuesday.

This forces them to approach moneylenders, who typically charge exorbitant interest rates, besides semi-formal sources such as chit funds.

Source: Live Mint (link opens in a new window)

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microfinance, poverty alleviation