SINGAPORE – Women entrepreneurs facing the well-documented difficulty in accessing financing and networking opportunities may soon get a boost from an initiative launched this week.
The Standard Chartered Women’s International Network is a free programme for all business banking clients of Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) whose organisations are led or owned by women.
They can apply for unsecured loans of up to $500,000, payable in fixed instalments of up to 60 months. They need to pay only the interest on the loan for the first six months, said a bank spokeswoman.
“Our experience partnering many local (small- and medium-sized enterprises) shows the lack of collateral as a key challenge many of our clients face when seeking bank financing,” she said.
Participants can also connect with entrepreneurs overseas and get advice on setting up businesses in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where the bank operates.
The scheme has also been launched in India, Kenya, Malaysia and will be progressively introduced in other markets.
StanChart here has linked with the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) so the 524 members of its Singapore Women Entrepreneurs Network can tap the scheme.
The partnership was announced at an event on Wednesday commemorating the SBF network’s second anniversary.
The SBF will also conduct e-business training for more than 240 women entrepreneurs from a range of smaller firms here from early 2024.
This comes after the federation was appointed by the Asia-Pacific Women’s Information Network Center to implement a training programme to strengthen the e-business and infocomm technology competency of Asean female-owned micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.
The Singapore Women Entrepreneurs Network has also been supporting members through programmes such as a six-month entrepreneurship course organised with the United States Embassy here and a peer support group for women entrepreneurs, which started in the food and beverage sector.
Network chairwoman Rachel Eng said: “We will continue to advocate for, equip and provide a conducive environment to support more women entrepreneurs to overcome their business challenges and succeed in Singapore and beyond.”
Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo said at Wednesday’s event that about one in four entrepreneurs here are women, up from about one in five in 2016.
“Far from being forced into entrepreneurship, today’s women in Singapore have many more choices,” she said, after citing the experience of her late grandmother, who had to start a shoe business as she was widowed at a young age.
“When they take on entrepreneurship, it is not just a matter of fulfilling their own aspirations. It is also them saying that they know they can be more, they know that they can have a bigger impact.”
