IANS | 05 Jul, 2024
Financing Women Collaborative (FWC), an initiative of Women
Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) on Friday announced new collaborations to
support women entrepreneurs by strengthening their access to finance at a
workshop held here.
As part of the workshop, Anna Roy, Mission Director, WEP and Principal
Economic Adviser, NITI Aayog, launched several initiatives.
Key highlights included the announcement of a partnership between MAVIM
and MSC under FWC to improve access to finance through alternative credit
rating mechanisms and work with banks to offer more tailored products for women
entrepreneurs in Maharashtra.
An MoU exchange between WEP and GroW Network founded by AfD, SIDBI, and
Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation; launch of the “Seher” program by TU CIBIL
and launch of the Shine program in partnership with CreditEnable to strengthen
the credit readiness of women-led enterprises were other initiatives announced
to benefit women entrepreneurs.
Additionally, SEWA Bank’s commitment to reaching out to more women
entrepreneurs as a member of FWC was also announced.
The event included an engaging session exploring “Perspectives on
encouraging banks to finance women beyond SHG groups” and a panel discussion
titled “Accelerating women’s access to finance: Unlocking the potential of the
women-led economy for achieving Vision 2047.”
The meeting was organised by WEP in partnership with TransUnion CIBIL
(TU CIBIL) and MicroSave Consulting (MSC).
Key dignitaries included senior officials from NITI Aayog, RBI, the
Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of MSME, SIDBI, public-sector banks,
private-sector financial institutions, CSOs/NGOs, and women entrepreneurs who
attended the workshop.
WEP, incubated in NITI Aayog in 2018 as an aggregator platform,
transitioned into a public-private partnership in 2022. WEP aims to strengthen
India’s women entrepreneurship ecosystem.
It provides a forum for all ecosystem stakeholders across government,
business, philanthropy, and civil society to collaborate, converge, and align
their initiatives towards scalable, sustainable and effective programs,
enabling a larger impact for women entrepreneurs.
WEP has over 20 public and private sector partners collaborating to
strengthen women entrepreneurs in India.
FWC, an initiative of WEP launched in September 2023, aims to enhance
access to finance for women entrepreneurs in India. It is chaired by the Small
Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and co-chaired by TU CIBIL, with
MSC as its secretariat.
FWC brings together the financial service sector and organisations
working with women entrepreneurs to create a supportive financing ecosystem for
women.
--IANS