Through the WiB product, female entrepreneurs surveyed are accessing credit that is helping them grow their revenues (86%) and increase their client base (23%). ![]() This showed that Unibank clients chose the WiB loan because they believe Unibank has the best commercial offering. The evaluation also included a survey on the impact of the loans on the female entrepreneurs for Unibank and SEF. FMO also provided technical assistance to SEF with developing its Larger Loan Program, and by giving it access to FMO’s network SEF was able to find an external consultant to develop its Female Leadership program. Similarly, FMO contributed to SEF’s WMSME-focused products, and its willingness to provide good lending conditions and flexibility. Moreover, FMO’s commitment to a long-term investment, especially in earmarking it for the WiB product, was a key factor in being additional. With Unibank, FMO played a key role in developing its Women in Business (WiB) loan product, making FMO the exclusive contributing factor to Unibank’s WMSME-focused products and services. FMO also played a key role in financing a technical assistance program to create partnerships with Filipino MFIs and identify new financial products such as savings and remittances at a reduced cost for Al Majmoua’s clients who are Filipino migrant workers (about 2,500 Filipina migrant workers). In the case of Al Majmoua’s work in Lebanon, FMO made a major contribution to its WMSME services and products, particularly as it offered an extended loan maturity period of five years. The evaluation of the impact of FMO’s investments on female entrepreneurs through these three organizations revealed additionality in all cases, albeit in different ways. Of the three organizations evaluated, Al Majmoua’s female entrepreneurs in Lebanon faced more challenging situations during the pandemic than their peers in South Africa or Armenia, due to other confounding effects (a political, economic and financial crisis at the end of 2019 and an explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020). It has exposed the existing inequalities, largely because women tend to work in the hardest hit sectors (e.g., hospitality and food services), have limited social protection, and are the primary family care givers. The study clearly indicated that the COVID-19 crisis has affected female entrepreneurs. The disproportional impact of COVID-19 on female entrepreneurs Unlike SEF and Al Majmoua, Unibank doesn’t have a structured approach to non-financial assistance but rather provides individual financial advice through its loan officers. Unibank developed a women-in-business loan product to cater to this segment. ![]() This can greatly improve inclusion as also mentioned in the Non-financial services report by FMO and IFC. SEF and Al Majmoua take a holistic approach by combining financial services with non-financial assistance. Overall, the external evaluators concluded that Unibank, Al Majmoua and SEF all contributed to increasing female entrepreneurs’ access to finance. Diverse approaches to achieving financial inclusion Furthermore, the study assessed how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted these organizations and their WMSME clients. The study provides insights into the development, adaptation and innovation of products and services by the three organizations in reaching WMSMEs, and the extent to which FMO’s funding is additional in terms of providing female entrepreneurs with access to finance. As they received funding through the MASSIF fund as well as from FMO-A, we analyzed the investments to provide insights for our customers and to inform our financial inclusion approach for the public funds under FMO’s management, as well as for FMO’s own balance sheet activities. Al Majmoua and SEF are microfinance institutions and Unibank is a midsized universal bank. The evaluation, which used a qualitative and quantitative mixed-method approach, looked at Al Majmoua (Lebanon), Unibank (Armenia) and The Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF, South Africa). Analysis of loan impact on reaching female entrepreneurs ![]() To get insight in our efforts, we commissioned an external study of three investments that focused on improving access to finance for women-led Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (WMSMEs). FMO is proactive in identifying ways to contribute to the full inclusion of women in economic life, and thereby contributing to SDG 10 and SDG 5.
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