Many initiatives support women, F88 is selected by ADI to sponsor promoting gender equality

F88's initiatives in supporting low-income women to become self-employed and promoting advancement opportunities for female employees are highly appreciated by international organizations.

On March 8, F88 launched a loan package specifically for female customers with a cost of only 50% of the normal loan cost. F88's new product is part of a series of activities that bring many benefits to female employees and customers by the end of 2023, with the Australian Development Investment Organization (ADI) providing technical assistance (TA) to F88 with an amount of 43,000 Australian dollars, about 693 million VND.

The goal of this funding is to support F88's diversity initiatives to promote equity and gender equality within the company, increasing the presence of women in leadership positions and in the company's products and services.

The number of female customers coming to F88 has a very high growth rate.

Ms Majdie Hordern, Secretary for Development Cooperation, Australian Embassy in Hanoi, said: “The Australian Government is proud to provide technical assistance through ADI to support a Lendable portfolio company to help women entrepreneurs access finance. Developing products that are tailored to women business owners is not only the right decision, it is also the smart decision.

“I look forward to seeing how F88 and other lenders expand their customer base by customizing products for the thousands of women-run businesses in Vietnam,” added Majdie Hordern.

Before receiving support from ADI, F88 was already a partner of Lendable with an investment of 10 million USD (equivalent to 240 billion VND) from foreign funds for this chain of convenience financial stores. Lendable itself, after working with F88, introduced this unit to ADI as a business that cares about and regularly organizes community activities, including gender equality issues.

Lendable has been operating in 12 countries and territories, partnering with investors such as ADI and lending institutions such as F88. The company representative said that Lendable is very pleased to have become a bridge of cooperation between ADI and F88, helping F88 create financial products for women as well as gender initiatives at the strategic level within the company.

Lienda Kavindele, Head of Impact and ESG at Lendable, commented that F88’s initiatives in supporting low-income self-employed women are important and reflect a shared vision of inclusive economic development.

“We appreciate that F88 not only focuses on the surface but also implements internal gender equality programs, demonstrating its commitment to positive change both in business and in the workplace,” said Ms. Lienda Kavindele.

Female staff accounts for a high proportion at F88

According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance in 2023, women account for 47% of the workforce. However, the majority of female workers are unskilled, jobs such as housework, cleaning, and miscellaneous work undertaken by female workers account for 94.7% of the total employed workforce. Particularly during the Covid-19 period, the unemployment rate of female workers is higher than that of male workers.

These figures show that Vietnamese women are facing more difficulties in financial independence and that providing a loan solution for self-employed women is necessary. This is also the motivation for F88 to launch a loan product specifically for women.

Mr. Phung Anh Tuan, General Director of F88 Trading Joint Stock Company said, In the past 5 years, since receiving investment from foreign funds, F88 has increasingly focused on gender equality. Currently, the proportion of female employees in the company is 53%, of which those aged 20-30 account for nearly 70%, holding management positions is 45% and holding executive positions accounts for approximately 20%. The proportion of female customers is currently 30%. The growth of female customers in 2022 compared to 2021 is 234%. For F88, becoming a partner of Lendable and ADI in gender equality initiatives is a great achievement. This recognition shows that F88's past efforts have been highly appreciated by the community and through that, F88 has demonstrated its responsibility to society.

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