Gayle Tzemach has a nice piece in the International Herald Tribune on women entrepreneurs in Bosnia. A story of Narcisa Kavazovic would sound all too familiar to many in developing/emerging/transitioning/post-conflict economies:
A decade ago, Kavazovic said, no banks were willing to help her get her business started in a country brought to its knees by war. In 1998, with her property out of reach, banks unwilling to lend even with promises of 200 percent interest and all other options exhausted, she turned to a friend in Spain for €20,000 to purchase the materials to get started.
CIPE’s recent survey in Iraq, for example, shows that 33% of business people turn to their friends and family to get a loan for business, and only 24% have asked for (not necessarily received) a loan from a private bank, and 17% from a state-owned bank. Same survey shows that 53% of business owners have never sought funds to expand their business. But back to Bosnia:
Women head a quarter of Bosnian households, with unemployment in these homes 77 percent higher than those led by men. With women poorer and less likely to be in the labor force, their economic independence would mean greater productivity and a higher standard of living for themselves and their country.
And although the challenges are many:
Many formerly state-owned companies have yet to be privatized, and government spending still accounts for roughly half of gross domestic product. Business owners complain of government corruption and an entangled bureaucracy that consumes their time and money. A 2005 World Bank business climate survey ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina 123rd out of 155 nations for ease of starting a business.
Women business owners are succeeding in a tough economic terrain. Also, check out Gayle’s Economic Reform Feature Service article on women entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Afghanistan published earlier this year.
Published Date: July 13, 2006