Mainstreaming women SME entrepreneurs

Someone asked Rabindranath Tagore to correct his famous song line 'Who'll break the key to take me out of home', arguing that it should be the 'lock' and not the 'key'. If the key is broken, how could one unlock the shut doors? Tagore refused saying he meant 'the key' that remains in the 'bunch of keys' tied to women's 'anchol'. This symbolises that women are for household chores only. They need to come out of the traditional role and be partners in progress.
Tagore realised it and gave expression to this thought by composing the memorable song. But the question is how far have we achieved? The answer is of course positive-- we achieved a lot; we successfully pulled a sizeable number of our women from the shackles of household works. Women are now executives, politicians, legislators, and professionals in a host of other specialised areas.  Moreover, they are now business persons and are strongly present in the mainstream economy. Microfinance institutions (MFIs), non-government organisations (NGOs) and our development partners have played a crucial role in bringing women out of the four walls.
 Though MFIs and NGOs have been providing micro- credit to the rural women since 1980, only a few of them could reach the medium-sized entrepreneur's level. To make further improvement, the government underscored the importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are generally larger both in terms of assets and number of employees. These are often lifelines for larger firms for raw materials, accessories, and services. SMEs remain at the heart of linkage industry.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has issued directives to banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to finance the SMEs, particularly the women entrepreneurs involved in these. SMEs require not only entrepreneurial spirit, but capital as well. According to the central bank's directives, minimum 15 per cent of the total SME funds are to be disbursed among women entrepreneurs in SME sector; interest rate can not exceed 10 per cent, and loan applications of women entrepreneurs have to be disposed of with high priority. A woman entrepreneur can avail a maximum loan facility of Tk 2.5 million against personal guarantee.
Besides capital, managerial and logistical expertise is required to run a business. In addition, running a SME often requires a businessperson to be well connected to networks. Female entrepreneurs in our country normally lack access to such expertise and networks, limiting their ability to become SME entrepreneurs. A Women Entrepreneurs' Conference in Dhaka where about 500 successful women entrepreneurs from different parts of the country took part, discussed this issue. Panel discussants identified that marketing has been a big problem of the SMEs.
The Bangladesh Bank's initiative has led to the rise of female entrepreneurship in the country. Women's participation in Bangladesh has definitely increased as the banks and NBFIs disbursed loan to more than 65,000 women entrepreneurs. With the rise in number of women entrepreneurs, increased employment opportunities for women is now a reality, and this was focussed in a study report presented recently at a conference organised by the Bangladesh Women's Chamber of Commerce.
Since women are not well connected to either markets or networks to advance their businesses, they tend to compete in a narrower range of commercial undertakings such as handicrafts, dress making and fish drying. It is difficult for them to sell their products beyond local markets. The central bank can extend further cooperation to the women SME entrepreneurs and share their experiences regarding improvement of business environment. This will help better understand what policy-makers and institutions can do to help improve and expand entrepreneurship and economic opportunities for females throughout the country. In addition, the Bangladesh Bank needs to have an impact analysis for mainstreaming the women entrepreneurs through resolving their problems. Again, the BB needs to put special emphasis on enhancing marketing facilities of the products being produced by women entrepreneurs and allocating business places and shops in the markets and other important places. Let us see how the central bank breaks Tagore's key and makes our women partners in development.
The writer is an Assistant Professor of the Bangladesh             Open University. mizan2006@yahoo.com