With the desire to develop their businesses and conquer new heights, many female business owners have sought solutions and support from financial institutions, thereby turning difficulties into opportunities.
Barriers to conquering dreams
In 2014, Tu Anh, a businesswoman from Hanoi, used all her savings after many years of working at a branch of a Singaporean company to buy a food import-export and distribution business called New Horizon. As the company director, Tu Anh began her entrepreneurial journey with the belief that: "Why don't I try to spend the efforts and time working for another company on my own business, so that I can independently balance my time with my children?"
When interacting with corporate clients during the course of her business, Tu Anh realized that businesses were in great need of gifts for their sales campaigns, as well as for giving to customers, partners and employees on anniversaries. From there, this businesswoman began to explore the market and develop a new business segment: corporate gifts.
A major challenge that Tu Anh faces is working capital, ensuring cash flow for the company’s monthly expenses. “This is something that I have never faced as an employee,” Tu Anh shared. “Before, I never thought about having to balance the cash flow in and out to cover monthly expenses and import goods at the same time.”
Nguyen Thi Linh, CFO of Hoang Anh Company Limited - a family business founded by her and her sister, understands the challenges that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by women face.
Linh’s company was founded in 2016, specializing in the production and supply of wooden packaging products. The business has grown strongly over the years, exporting to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and many other markets in Asia. Linh recently received notice that the factory must be moved out of the city before 2030 to reduce industrial pollution and serve the road construction project in the northeastern area of Hanoi. Therefore, the business will need to borrow about 10 billion VND to build a new factory in a neighboring province.
Specialized financial solutions for female entrepreneurs
To meet the capital for the factory relocation, Linh turned to Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) - the bank that had previously provided financial products to the company. "The largest loan I have ever used was nearly VND9 billion to increase working capital," Linh said.
Tu Anh also made a similar decision. “SeABank has a very good policy for women-owned businesses, with loan interest rates lower than the average interest rate on the market. The loan procedure is very quick, helping us to fulfill many large orders thanks to timely access to capital.” Tu Anh’s company was granted a credit limit of 2 billion VND, thanks to which it has working capital to continuously receive many orders.
Mr. Tran Duc - Deputy Director of Corporate Banking at SeABank shared about the bank's support for the women-owned SMEs segment: “Five years ago, we were one of the first banks to target female customers. We assess customers based on their income, transaction history or credit history, then apply different policies for each customer group such as offering lower interest rates or fee incentives. Collateral is just one of many factors considered, and we also provide tailored financial products.” This approach helps to reduce some of the barriers that women-owned SMEs often face when accessing finance.
According to SeaBank, as an implementing partner of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), IFC’s We-Fi program has provided SeABank with a performance-based incentive of up to USD 140,000 along with a USD 170 million loan to encourage the bank to extend credit to women-owned SMEs. Of this, at least USD 20 million is dedicated to lending to women-owned SMEs. In addition to this investment, with support from the Australian government, IFC is also providing advisory services, focusing on capacity building for SeABank to design, implement and manage a lending portfolio for women-owned SMEs.
In late 2023, SeABank launched the SeAPower Women Entrepreneurs Club, which provides a range of financial and non-financial benefits specifically for women entrepreneurs, to enhance their capacity and develop the market for women. The club creates interactive forums, workshops and training sessions, service counters for women-owned SMEs at bank branches, business networking opportunities, promotional programs with reputable brands, and supports communication and branding.
SeABank plans to continue developing the SeAPower Club for women-owned SMEs in the coming years. Furthermore, with the support of IFC, SeABank designed and launched a new cash flow-based credit product in June 2024, targeting small and women-owned businesses. Although newly launched, this product has been well received. In the coming time, SeABank will promote this product at all branches of the Bank.
Bich Dao
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/seabank-tiep-suc-nu-doanh-nhan-chinh-phuc-uoc-mo-2378141.html
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