September 21, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 08, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: The government should work out a comprehensive financial package to encourage female entrepreneurs to establish sustainable enterprises, suggest a research study.

The recommendations were made in a research report --- Access to finance for female entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The study was conducted by ACCA Pakistan, which was released here on Thursday.

The report says female entrepreneurs need support of the government, the private sector, and most importantly the finance providers, as they strive to satisfy their entrepreneurial instincts, and establish sustainable enterprises.

The report outlines access to finance as one of the main obstacles faced by female entrepreneurs as they try to establish a sustainable enterprise in the face of social and domestic constraints.

The sources of seed capital for female entrepreneurs usually are personal savings, sale of personal jewels or loans from family and relatives. The growth potential of the enterprises is constrained by the unavailability of finance, which mainly is due to reluctance of the female entrepreneurs to access bank finance.

The major reasons for reluctance to access bank finance are fear of default, high interest rates, unpleasant experiences with the banks, difficulties in arranging collaterals and guarantors, lack of awareness of financing schemes, high risk averseness compared to men, social barriers and lack of an effective lobby.

The report recommends that female entrepreneurs should adopt a proactive approach to learn about financing, maintain relevant and reliable accounting records and use the services of professional accountants, should consider refreshing or enhancing their accounting skills by attending professional development courses of accounting and finance and build an effective lobby.

The report says that the finance providers are of the opinion that specific characteristics of female-owned enterprises, reluctance to hire the services of professional accountants, social constraints in establishing a working relationship with female entrepreneurs and inability to arrange a guarantor or collateral are reasons for reluctance of the finance providers to provide finance to female entrepreneurs.

It has been recommended that the State Bank of Pakistan will have to play a pivotal role in enabling greater access to finance for female entrepreneurs, by encouraging banks to design and advertise products customised to their needs and constraints and encourage banks to allocate amounts in the total lending portfolio for lending to female entrepreneurs.

It should also encourage implementation of the State Bank of Pakistan Prudential Regulations relating to cash flow based lending. Banks should incorporate developmental objectives and focus on outreach in their vision, strategy and actions.

The report concludes that public-private partnership is needed to overcome the barrier of access to finance for female entrepreneurs.