Even as businesses battled revenue shortfalls and faced WORKING CAPITAL issues, fresh loan disbursals to Women entrepreneurs surged 32% in the pandemic year of 2020-21. This Growth rate was much lower at 8.2% in 2019-20, shows the latest data compiled by the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC)-Gujarat.
Fresh loans worth Rs 20,132 crore were extended to women entrepreneurs in 2020-21 as compared to Rs 15,252 crore in 2019-20. The disbursals grew noticeably but the number of beneficiaries declined to 7.87lakhfrom 8.57 lakh during the period under review.
The pandemic caused a major disruption across businesses in most sectors. As a consequence, the requirement for working capital went up. People who had registered businesses in the name of their wives availed these loans. At the same time, many were compelled to diversify their business and they did so in the name of the women in their family for easy credit availability.