2018年-世界发展银行全球_Access_to_Finance_for_Female-led_Micro_Small_and_Medium-sized_Enterprises_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina_24页_1mb

Summary of Access to Finance for Female-led Micro, Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Core Content

This document analyzes the challenges and opportunities related to access to finance for female-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). It highlights the economic importance of female entrepreneurship, the multidimensional constraints they face, and proposes policy recommendations to improve their financial inclusion.

Main Points

1. Importance of Female-led MSMEs

• Female-led MSMEs are vital for job creation, increasing female participation in the economy, and promoting inclusive GDP growth.
• They tend to employ more women and contribute to better health and education outcomes for children.
• Female entrepreneurship is a key pathway for economic growth and development.
• Globally, excluding women entrepreneurs reduces average output per worker by 12 percent.
• In BiH, female-led enterprises are less likely to be formal and tend to be smaller, informal, and home-based.
• They are concentrated in low productivity sectors such as health, social work, hairdressing, and beauty treatment.
• BiH ranks low on gender-related indicators, including economic participation and female entrepreneurship.

2. Access to Finance: A Major Challenge

• The MSME finance gap in BiH is 5% of GDP, with a larger gap for female-led firms.
• 20% of MSMEs in BiH cite access to finance as a major obstacle, with 66% of these being microenterprises.
• Female-led enterprises face higher financial constraints due to limited access to assets, financial knowledge, and collateral.
• Despite having similar or better financial capabilities, they are less likely to obtain financing and face less favorable terms.

3. Multidimensional Constraints

• Firm Characteristics: Female-led MSMEs are smaller, less productive, and more likely to be in the services sector.
• Financial Constraints:
  • Lower access to credit and other financial services.
  • Lower use of financial instruments such as bank loans, leasing, and debt securities.
  • Lower request and approval rates for trade credit and lines of credit.
  • Limited access to collateral, particularly land, which is mostly owned by men.
• Non-Financial Constraints:
  • Social norms that stereotype entrepreneurship as a male-dominated activity.
  • Time poverty due to domestic responsibilities.
  • Limited access to information and networks.
  • Lower levels of self-confidence and business opportunities.

Key Findings

• Female-led MSMEs in BiH are 19% of all MSMEs, compared to 30% male-led.
• Female-led firms are more likely to be microenterprises (68% of MSMEs), and more than 90% are sole proprietorships.
• Female-led enterprises have lower value-added and asset levels than male-led ones.
• The financing gap is larger for female-led businesses, with 32% of the MSME financing gap attributed to them.
• Female-led enterprises are less likely to use internet banking and e-money accounts.
• There is a perception that female-led firms are less creditworthy, possibly due to gender bias.
• Women entrepreneurs are less likely to access medium-to-long-term financing, with only 25% having taken out a bank loan compared to 41% of male-led firms.
• Financial capability scores for female-led firms are not positively correlated with access to finance, suggesting other factors like gender discrimination may be at play.

Policy Recommendations

3.1. Support Policy Reform and Regulations

• Integrate a gender lens into MSME-focused policymaking.
• Review and improve the implementation of existing laws that promote gender equality.
• Strengthen the moveable collateral registry and improve data quality in credit registries.
• Conduct a supply-side diagnostic to understand the actual practices of financial institutions.

3.2. Boost Financial Education and Management Capabilities

• Provide training to female entrepreneurs on interacting with financial institutions.
• Focus on identifying suitable financial products, understanding rights and responsibilities, and assessing financing needs.
• Coordinate with financial service providers to ensure targeted support.

3.3. Provide Advisory Services to Financial Institutions

• Encourage financial institutions to operationalize the business case for serving female-led MSMEs.
• Train staff (loan officers, account managers, credit committees) to better serve female clients.
• Promote the use of psychometric testing and other tools to reduce gender bias.

3.4. Address Social Constraints

• Challenge stereotypes that view entrepreneurship as a male-dominated activity.
• Support women in balancing work and family responsibilities.
• Promote access to information, networks, and business opportunities.

3.5. Continue to Address Data Gaps

• Collect and analyze gender-disaggregated data on MSMEs and their access to finance.
• Improve the availability of data to inform better policy and support programs.
• Use the 2018 BiH MSME Survey as a foundation for future data collection and analysis.

Conclusion

Female-led MSMEs in BiH face significant multidimensional constraints, particularly in access to finance, which are exacerbated by social norms, limited collateral, and gender bias in financial institutions. Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach that includes policy reform, financial education, advisory services, and data collection to ensure inclusive economic growth.