I propose a national credit portal to register women seeking loans

Access to finance for women must be absolutely uninterrupted and every woman seeking a loan deserves at least Tk 1 crore, says Asian University for Women Vice-Chancellor Rubana Huq in an exclusive interview with The Business Post’s Ibrahim Hossain Ovi and Hamimur Rahman Waliullah.

You are a successful business person and a leader. What are the challenges women face in becoming leaders?

Being a female leader is not easy. There are lots of challenges that a woman faces when she wants to become a leader. The first challenge is, of course, mindset.

For some reason or other, I think the whole world, especially South Asia, suffers from a chauvinistic mindset. So, it is difficult for a man to accept that a woman can be better or can do the job better.

Also, I think women have not really claimed excellence. But we should. I think it is by breaking all the barriers, especially the bias-based ones, that we will turn out to be better leaders.

Challenges will always be there, but it is up to us to make sure that we are visible enough, that all the good work that we attempt to do is visible, and that people appreciate us for who we are and not just because we are women.

Also, the appearance of female and male leaders is very different. So, we need to break the bias and make sure that we appear equal in every possible way.

Why is women’s access to finance limited? How can we ensure equity for women entrepreneurs?

Access to finance is very limited for female entrepreneurs. Though the central bank makes it almost mandatory for all commercial banks to give at least 10 per cent of loans to female entrepreneurs, the actual disbursement is not above 2-3 per cent. So, we also need to make sure that women have fair access to capital.

While many banks have come up with offers for female entrepreneurs, they very often also want a guarantee from the husband or they want to understand whether the woman is married. All this points again to a bias. It is as if a woman alone is not enough to support herself.

Women are always great clients anywhere. If you give a loan to a woman, she will use it way better than a man because she will also think about her family, the children’s education, and nutrition. A man barely does that.

So, access to finance for women must be absolutely uninterrupted. I would like to propose a national credit portal where every woman seeking a loan may register. That should be picked up by all banks, and then they can offer her the loan through competition.

Here, the competition will be among the financial institutions to get the female client. Women should not go and knock on the door of every bank asking for credit.

Do you think Bangladesh’s business climate, including laws and regulations, is suitable for women entrepreneurs?

I think the fiscal climate is very friendly and the policies are there, but implementation is a huge challenge. It is not about just a box of compliance where every item needs to be ticked.

It is again a question of changing mindset. When you change mindset, you will be able to guarantee a safe and interesting fiscal space for women.

What are your suggestions to ensure a women-friendly business environment and regulatory reforms?

I think when commercial banks offer different packages for women, they need to be a little more flexible with their demand for collateral. That needs to be assured first. I think the limit should be raised to Tk 1 crore.

It can be phase-wise disbursement, but I think female entrepreneurs deserve at least Tk 1 crore. Her performance can be evaluated later. There can be a credit committee, a selection committee, and others. Besides, there can be a performance monitoring committee that can monitor her performance and make sure that she gets the second tranche.

A national credit portal is absolutely important for every woman to register her loan requirement and be acknowledged by banks. Above all, the general mindset needs to be changed, and the biases ingrained in our social strata need to be completely demolished.

I think we have monsters within ourselves as much as we have saints. So, it is important for us not to subscribe to negativity when it comes to women making significant strides in the economy. A man should always stand by a woman in order for her to achieve excellence.

It is also a case of #HeForShe as pointed out by UN Women. I think it should also be a case of #SheForShe where women will support women through mentorship and empathy.