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Kiyapili Sibanda, Business Reporter
THE gender gap in financing and lack of information about women’s credit history are some of the challenges that negatively affect their businesses.

POSB Bank general manager, Mrs Hope Marere, said this in Bulawayo during the Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) development forum on Monday.

She also said non-financial issues such as gaps in legal capacity, property rights, and inheritance laws also make up the package of challenges for female entrepreneurs.

Mrs Marere said there was a need to tackle the challenges and remove bottlenecks so as to fully empower women and ensure they contribute meaningfully to the economy.

“The gender gap in finance obviously affects female-owned businesses very negatively. Therefore, it is not a surprise that the average growth rate of women’s enterprises is significantly lower than that of SMEs run by men,” she said.

“This is due in part to a lack of information about women’s credit history. Non-financial issues such as gaps in legal capacity, property rights, and inheritance laws also make it much more difficult for female entrepreneurs to access financing.

“So we need to direct our attention to the challenges and bottlenecks that are stifling SMEs in our country, with particular attention to women’s businesses.”

Mrs Marere challenged women to identify new business models and tap new mobile and other technologies to provide improved finance that was more cost-effective throughout the whole lifecycle of a company. She said female-owned businesses deserve special attention in terms of legal frameworks.

“These SMEs have inadequate or absolutely no collateral, and suffer from information asymmetries in the financial market.

“Most of the capital stock that SMEs own is movable assets, such as inventory, receivables or equipment.

“However, these assets are often not accepted as security by banks due to inadequate legal frameworks or non-existence of movable collateral registries,” she said.

The purpose of the forum was to capacitate SMEs through imparting the relevant legal, financial, tax related and product related information to shape their businesses for success.

@Kiyaz_Cool