‘Touch and Tech’ Key for Women Entrepreneurs

According to the World Economic Forum 2022 Global Gender Gap report, gender equality is not improving, and it will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap.

While this is a sad sight for women, Payal Dalal, senior vice president of social impact, international markets, at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, told PYMNTS that she remains optimistic. . “I have hope, though, and my hope is that the digital economy can be a place where women can be successful and get equal economic opportunities with men,” she said in an interview.

However, “Digitization will not automatically create gender equality,” especially “if it is not done intentionally with the aim of developing and encouraging inclusive digitalization,” he said.

In fact, it will take a step-by-step process, one that will begin to restore trust in digital technologies — a key barrier that he says has hindered digital adoption for years.

“We see that the female population is more dependent on technology. And so, we need to deliberately introduce technology [in our programs] and to create not only business for it, but also safety for it,” he explained.

She also said that access to credit has been a historic challenge for women entrepreneurs, a trend that continues in today’s digital economy. But there are opportunities to overcome this, he added, pointing to an ongoing, years-long partnership between Mastercard and international nonprofit Accion to help microfinance institutions (MFIs) and small banks in adopting technology and digitizing their processes.

In fact, MFIs, whose clients Dalal says are mostly women, play a unique role in driving the adoption of digital tools because of the trust they create in the communities in which they operate.

“They are loan officers, and back then [processes] digitized, they are in the field giving money, and therefore they have time to build strong relationships with women entrepreneurs,” she explained.

In total, the Mastercard-Accion deal has led to the collaboration of nine financial service providers and 50 FinTech startups around the world in the last four years, especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia. And according to Dalal, the result is a “disproportionate positive impact” on businesses led by women.

“We see that women are adopting digital financial services at a higher rate 1680152563. It also improves their ability to save and it opens up new streams of credit that enable their businesses to grow,” he added.

Finally, taking advantage of the eCommerce boom is another way that technology can promote growth and open access to much-needed credit for micro and small women-led businesses.

This can be done by embedding financial services in digital platforms such as Jumia, Mercado Libre or Grab to help women entrepreneurs create alternative channels of data from the sales made, a process that helps of women’s businesses “which are often considered too risky by traditional banks” to not be de-risked.

A Blend of Touch and Tech

As technology and digital tools are an enabler for women entrepreneurs, Dalal said the approach to driving adoption “cannot be a purely digital solution,” but must be a “combination of touch and technology” to be effective.

He points to the digital training programs they run, as an example, explaining that the engagement of female entrepreneurs is low due to the greater value they place on personal networking events and training session on virtual programs.

“Part of it for them is that [these in-person events were] an escape from their business and the household chores they were juggling. It creates a social aspect that is important to them,” he said, adding that moving from straight to WhatsApp or Facebook bots means they no longer have an incentive to participate.

Similarly, she pointed to a training program in Poland where they taught women how to create an online store. That too, she said, failed to garner much interest from businesswomen.

“It’s not as much fun looking at my computer as it is being in a room, sharing stories and exchanging tips with other female entrepreneurs,” one of them said, according to Dalal.

Leveraging ‘Transformative’ Partnerships

Going forward, Dalal said that digital will open many opportunities for women entrepreneurs, including opening credit, new markets and new customer segments, among others.

The fact that there is recognition on the part of the investor community to prioritize investing in startups led by women can also be a game changer, as seen in the proliferation of initiatives and funds dedicated to investing in women entrepreneurs and innovators.

Ultimately, she said partnerships, which are increasingly becoming “more transformational rather than transactional” will further encourage the growth of women-led businesses.

This includes collaborations between FinTechs and microfinance institutions, with the former creating rapid, human-centered innovations while microfinance institutions bring years of trust to the table.

He also points to Mastercard’s partnership with private sector entities such as Unilever in Kenya, MTN in sub-Saharan Africa, or Levi Strauss and Marks & Spencer to pilot digital payroll for factory workers in Cambodia and Egypt, as a way the entities can work together. to effect change.

As Dalal said: “There is a recognition that we cannot do these things independently. If we want to drive and accelerate gender equality at scale, it must be done through partnerships.

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