To mark International Women’s Day, Standard Chartered Bank will launch the Women in Business Resource Centre, an online tool designed to help women entrepreneurs start and grow their own businesses.
Standard Chartered believes entrepreneurship plays a key role in economic growth in the Bank’s markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. “We believe that women who are looking to start or grow their businesses have huge potential in India. The Women in Resource Business Centre will be a great tool for them to develop their entrepreneurial skills and progress to the next level,” commented, Rakesh Singh, General Manager and Head, SME Banking, Standard Chartered Bank, India.
Women entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly important drivers of growth, with forty to fifty per cent of businesses in developing markets owned by women[1]. Very few resources are targeted specifically at women entrepreneurs in these markets and therefore fail to address the specific challenges they face. These include a lack of female role models, access to financial education and confidence to start or grow their own businesses. .
The Resource Centre directly addresses these challenges by providing a variety of educational and interactive components aimed at small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), including modules and exercises on business planning, leadership skills and finances. Through the interactive platform, users can also share their feedback, business tips and contact a Standard Chartered SME team member. Inspirational video case studies of role models from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Hong Kong and Singapore are also featured on the site in order to provide examples of successful entrepreneurship.
The Resource Centre is currently available in seven languages, including Hindi and Bengali. It is hosted online and is accessible globally via the Standard Chartered website (www.standardchartered.com/sme-banking/resourcecentre/), available to customers and the general public, as well as both men and women.
The Women in Business Resource Centre is one of the ways that Standard Chartered Bank is supporting its Clinton Global Initiative commitment to educate at least 5,000 women in Asia on financial literacy.
Standard Chartered Bank in India
Standard Chartered Bank is India’s largest international bank with 94 branches in 37 cities, a combined customer base of around 2 million retail customers and more than 1,500 corporate and institutional relationships. Key businesses comprise Consumer Banking, including deposits, loans, wealth management, private banking and SME banking; and Wholesale Banking, which includes cash transaction banking, treasury, corporate finance and custody services. For more information, visit www.standardchartered.co.in
