Women-owned businesses in Guyana receive limited access to financial products and services – Study reveals

Apr 29, 2023 News

---

Kaieteur News – Results of a recent study undertaken by WEConnect International reveal that women-owned businesses in Guyana receive limited access to financial products and services.

The study was conducted in six countries, including Guyana, as part of the WE3A Project currently being rolled out nationally.

WEConnect International is a partner of the project and works to connect women-owned businesses to qualified buyers around the world. The WE3A Project is an initiative aimed at strengthening women-owned businesses and fostering their participation in corporate supply chains. The name WE3A derives from the initials Women Entrepreneurs and the 3A refer to the three pillars of the project: women business owners/ leaders who Aspire, Activate and Accelerate.

The study showed that despite its harsh effects on small and medium businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic has also opened new opportunities for growth and expansion into new business areas and commercialization formats. The study focused on the challenges and needs women-owned businesses face in Guyana, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Ecuador, to participate in global supply chains.

According to the NGO, today women own approximately 30% of businesses worldwide but receive only 1% of public procurement and corporate spend. For Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Lab and the World Bank’s We-Fi, financial supporters of the WE3A project, it is crucial in the region to empower women-owned businesses (WOBs) to foster national development.

It was stated that in Guyana, the two main challenges for WOBs are restricted access to capital funds for business projects and lack of training and education on business management. On the other hand, the most pressing needs are linked to the challenges. It was explained that WOBs require financial products and services which are designed for the scale and type of their businesses. They also need specific capacity building and training, which considers the specific needs, interests and peculiarities of women entrepreneurs and business women in Guyana and more accelerators and incubators to strengthen their businesses would also be welcome.

It was stated that the main opportunities are in the hospitality sector and the export sector mainly horticultural production, handcrafts and processed foods. In the oil sector, most of the opportunities are in provision of indirect services, like accounting, services for expatriates or events (organization, catering, etc.).

Notably, WeConnect International was hired by the project’s implementing institution, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, to conduct ecosystem mapping research and surveys among different stakeholders to understand the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on WOBs.

The ecosystem mapping research had several phases: documentation, stakeholder mapping including WOBs, large private corporations, and business support organizations (BSOs), stakeholder consultations and roundtables. It was noted that this way it was possible to maximize the amount of data collected and to verify it.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on most WOBs surveyed in 2021, mostly due to a sharp decrease in sales. The situation persisted a year later, according to the results from the 2022 survey.

The results from the ecosystem mapping and the COVID-19 surveys provide more than an overview of Guyana’s market – it also provides an understanding about the real challenges and needs WOBs face, which is vital for the WE3A Project to provide a better-suited training and networking events, as well as to inform the project’s efforts to increase awareness and sensitize corporate buyers and other stakeholders about the importance of empowering WOBs and promoting their access to global procurement chains.

The NGO also quoted Nelson Mandela saying, “If you want to change the world, help women.”

It was explained that women-owned businesses confront many challenges. As such, it was stated that this is why the WE3A Project is offering training to close the existing gaps that prevent them from participating in global markets.

In order to strengthen the network of women entrepreneurs, the project offers free registration into WECommunity, part of WeConnect, which opens opportunities for WOBs to be seen and considered by large corporations. Additionally, to those business women who graduate from the Accelerate component, the project offers to be certified at no cost for the first year as WOB by WEConnect International. This certification opens a wide array of opportunities for further training as well as for networking with corporations and other WOB around the world.

About WEConnect International

WEConnect International is a nonprofit global organization that facilitate networking between large corporations, multilateral organizations, and public institutions with qualified women-owned businesses around the world. It works with over 180 organizations that together represent more than USD $3 billion in annual purchase power, that have committed to having more diverse and inclusive supply chains, by allowing women-owned businesses from over 130 countries to bid. WEConnect International identifies, train, register in a global database of more than 16,000 businesses owned by women, and provides the Women-Owned Business certification to those companies that fulfill the international standard of at least 51% of ownership by one or more women. WEConnect International has certified WOBs in more than 50 countries. These countries englobe more than 70% of the world population. https://weconnectinternational.org/.

---

• businesses, Guyana, project, WEConnect International, Women

---