WE-HELP to provide 20 types of digital services to women entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs can avail of services in business financial management, product quality, ICT and digital services, skill development, funding and financial support, ensuring international standards in labour rights and factory safety.
One-stop digital platform "WE-HELP" launched to support women entrepreneurs will provide 20 types of services, including policy support, networking, creating markets for products, marketing support and exhibitions, webinars, etc.
According to a press release, entrepreneurs can avail of services in business financial management, product quality, ICT and digital services, skill development, funding and financial support, ensuring international standards in labour rights and factory safety.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar inaugurated WE-HELP – an initiative of the SME Foundation and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNSCAP) – through a programme organised at Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation in the capital on Thursday.
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SME Foundation Chairperson Professor Md Masudur Rahman presided over the event.
Industries Ministry Secretary Zakia Sultana was the special guest on the occasion.
Cai Cai, head of the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Branch, Social Development Division of UNSCAP; Gwyn Lewis, UN Resident Coordinator; Rita Houkayem, senior development officer of the Canadian High Commission in Bangladesh; and Mantasha Ahmed, president of SAARC Business Council, Bangladesh, were present at the guests of honour.
Citing the Economic Survey of Bangladesh Government 2013, it was informed at the programme that the number of cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises is 99.93% among more than 78 lakh small and medium enterprises in the country.
These enterprises contribute more than 25% to the economy, and to creating employment is 85%.
Among these enterprises, women entrepreneurs are only 7.2% who get only 8% of the country's total SME loans. However, women entrepreneurs get 25-30% of loans and 70% of all types of services provided by the SME Foundation.
According to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Research, 8.4 lakh people work in women-owned enterprises in the country, which is 10 % of the total working people.
The participation of women in labour is more than 36%. If this rate is increased to 45%, the gross domestic product or GDP growth would be 2% higher. SME Foundation and UNESCAP are jointly implementing various programmes under the project "Catalysing Women's Entrepreneurship – Creating a Gender Responsive Entrepreneurial System".
As a part of this, WE-HELP has been created for women entrepreneurs, through which women entrepreneurs across the country will be provided with the necessary information and support for entrepreneurial development, including online business information exchange, networking, training, market connections, and loans.
