Encouraging women to initiate and sustain enterprises could play a pivotal role in uplifting Bangladesh's economy and bring about improvements on various social indicators linked to the quality of life and well-being of families. It is encouraging to note that over the past few years there has been a significant rise in the number of women entrepreneurs in the country. Women entrepreneurs and their increasing presence in Bangladesh have significantly influenced the social and economic demographics of the country. The participation of women in the labour force has helped millions of families to pull out of poverty and has led to job creation. This increase is primarily attributable to a rising awareness in our women to become self-reliant by engaging themselves with economic activities alongside performing their conventional duties in family. The incumbent government efforts to promote women entrepreneurship has also played its part and the government thus deserves plaudits as well.
We must create a favourable environment for
women entrepreneurs to flourish
A lack of bank loan to women entrepreneurs against the actual demand is the major barrier to the growth in number of women entrepreneurs in the country. Even though various praiseworthy steps, like credit disbursement among women entrepreneurs at a single-digit interest rate, taken by the central bank over the last few years have resulted in a notable increase in the number of beneficiaries, still the percentage of loans received by women is very meagre when compared to the total loans disbursed by the government and private banks in the sector.
We are yet to go a long way to attain a global standard in terms of women entrepreneurship. In the developed countries, 25 per cent of the industrial and business institutions are owned by women entrepreneurs but the rate is less than 10 per cent in Bangladesh although half of the country’s total workforce is women.
The business landscape is changing. Consumer behaviour and attitudes have changed during the pandemic on ‘traditional’ ways of doing business and the current landscape has seen a seismic shift in women-owned and women-led businesses playing a large role in shaping the future. We must create a favourable environment for women entrepreneurs to flourish. In order to facilitate increased participation of women entrepreneurs in the economy, the government must take necessary steps to address these issues besides removing loan-related hassles. It must go for some policy recast, if necessary, along with formulation and implementation of pragmatic measures in order to incorporate our women in the economic mainstream in a larger number. Last but not least, the central bank must facilitate the inclusion of women entrepreneurs into the formal financial system.