Women Entrepreneurship Platform and TransUnion CIBIL Partner to Launch SEHER Program to Empower Women Entrepreneurs

The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) and TransUnion CIBIL have launched SEHER, a credit education program designed to empower women entrepreneurs in India. SEHER aims to provide financial literacy content and business skills, facilitating access to essential financial tools for growth and employment creation.

About SEHER Program

Launch Event

Introduced by Ms. Anna Roy, Mission Director, WEP, in the presence of key stakeholders from NITI Aayog, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Ministry of MSME, and TransUnion CIBIL.

Objective

Address financial awareness as a major hurdle for MSME development by educating women on finance aspects, including CIBIL Rank and commercial credit reports.

Significance of Financial Literacy

Challenges

Financial unawareness is a significant barrier for MSME growth.

Goal

Empower women entrepreneurs by providing comprehensive support across entrepreneurship promotion, finance access, market linkages, training, mentoring, and business development services.

Impact

Enhance women’s financial knowledge and skills for managing businesses and achieving sustained growth, contributing to India’s USD 5 trillion economy target.

Current State and Potential of Women Entrepreneurs

Statistics

India has 63 million MSMEs, with 20.5% being women-owned, employing 27 million people.

Growth Potential

Accelerating women’s entrepreneurship could create over 30 million new women-owned enterprises and 150 to 170 million jobs.

Loan Demand

Business loans for women have grown 3.9X from FY 2019 to FY 2024, with women holding 38% of the 1.5 crore live business loans as of March 2024.

WEP and TransUnion CIBIL Initiatives

Credit Education

SEHER will provide personalized resources and tools for financial literacy to women entrepreneurs, promoting good credit history and CIBIL scores.

Partnership

Commitment to improving financial and credit awareness for women entrepreneurs across India.

About WEP

Establishment

Incubated in NITI Aayog in 2018, transitioned to a public-private partnership in 2022.

Mission

Empower women entrepreneurs by overcoming information asymmetry and offering support in entrepreneurship promotion, finance access, market linkages, training, mentoring, and business development services.

About TransUnion CIBIL

Role

Provides comprehensive financial solutions, enabling economic opportunities and personal empowerment.

Clientele

Serves banks, financial institutions, NBFCs, housing finance companies, microfinance companies, and insurance firms in India.

Financing Women Collaborative (FWC)

Second Meeting

Held in Mumbai to address access to finance for women entrepreneurs, featuring key stakeholders from NITI Aayog, RBI, Ministry of Finance, MSME, SIDBI, SBI, and other organizations.

Initiatives

New collaborations to support women entrepreneurs in Maharashtra, MoU with GroW Network, and the launch of SEHER and Shine programs to improve credit readiness and access for women-led enterprises.