Women are reluctant to partake in business because of lack of advanced skills and limited access to financial services.

These were some of the challenges highlighted yesterday during an advocacy dialogue organised by the Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs in partnership with UN Women on promoting women and the economy in the country.

The two-day women meeting in Kigali brought together more than 300 businesswomen in micro, small-scale, medium and big businesses to deliberate on business-related challenges that women face and approaches that can be implemented to overcome those challenges.

Jacqueline Mukakemayire, a tailor from Nyamagabe town, said lack of exposure to various business ventures in terms of study tours and access to financial services pose a major challenge to the success of women in business.

"Banks ask for collateral for loans and most women who had good business ideas were impeded by lack of such security.Business Development Fund (BDF) still gives 75 per cent of guarantee to women but banks are hesitant to consider that,” Mukakemayire said.

"This is a big challenge to us. We therefore need collaboration between banks and Business Development Fund [for guarantees], plus improved business skills to help us develop and promote our business projects.”

Mukakemayire’s comments were echoed by Kevine Kagirimpundu, a youthful fashion entrepreneur with Uzuri K&Y, who said women require more than financial services to facilitate the sustainability of women in business.

"We need knowledge on how to do businesses and then we can be trained on how best we can access finance, how much finances we should take into our businesses and how to execute our business plans. It’s not just about accessing financial services for business start-up, but what to do with it too,” Kagirimpundu said.

Theresa Dusabe, the vice chairperson of Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs, proposed that BDF should cover 100 per cent of business guarantee for women.

"To ensure convenient access to finance services, BDF should be the one to give out money to businesswomen and not banks, as it is now. Many women have expressed inconsistencies in the collaboration between BDF and banks,” Dusabe said.

"We hope that banks waive collateral for women who wish to start businesses, since it’s still difficult for them to have enough security for bank loans.”

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Henriette Umulisa, said women entrepreneurs were increasing in the country and every stakeholder should take responsibility in ensuring that women thrive in business.

"The government has carried out quite a number of reforms to ensure women engage in business, including the recently launched program "Kora Wigire” to ensure gender equality and sustainable development,” Umulisa said.

In Rwanda, one of the priorities of the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II) is to stimulate entrepreneurship, access to finance and business development by increasing off-farm employment, productivity and new job creation driven by the private sector.

"Another challenge facing women entrepreneurs is the limited access to finance due to a traditional banking system in which women SMEs tend to be underestimated,” said Schadrack Dusabe, the head of programmes at UN Women Rwanda.

Data from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda indicate that women participation and influence in the financial sector is low as 22 per cent of women own or are involved in financial and insurance activities against 46 per cent for men.

Available figures further show that women entrepreneurs are also more likely than their male colleagues to be in the informal sector, running smaller firms mainly in service sectors and thus operating in lower value added sectors.

UN Women’s Dusabe said although there was political will to promote female entrepreneurs in Rwanda, there was more to be done in terms of knowledge about financial management, business management and innovation, and access to finance.

"Because financing is an important factor for growth opportunities, addressing women entrepreneurs’ specific needs in accessing finance must be part of the development agenda,” Dusabe said.

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