As the entrepreneurial sector continues to expand with women driving micro enterprise growth, one of the major challenges they face in sustaining a business is finding financial support. And so DFC has partnered with "The Network for Women in Business to fill this gap. They signed an MOU today, a major milestone for women entrepreneurs everywhere. I was there and here's what happened.
Belize's only development Bank is boosting its membership with the help of women, and is on its way to becoming a "Bank For Women" supporting those in the entrepreneurial sector.
DFC has partnered with The Network for Women in Business, NIME, by signing an MOU this morning promoting inclusivity, equality and economic growth. The Chief Lending Officer for DFC says that it solidifies the work DFC has been doing with NIME
Shanelle Reneau, Chief Lending Officer, DFC
"The MOU is the final agreement in terms of formalizing some of the capacity building gender inclusivity activities and women empowerment that we are looking to establish which we have already been doing but it's just a way to formalize tha. As we move forward to ensure that as we plan activities throughout the year that it has that focus in it and given that NIME is the number one network in Belize for women entrepreneurs and our focus is on women empowerment and mainstreaming gender. It was only fitting that we establish this MOU here today."
It signifies not only the long standing partnership between DFC and NIME, but also opens doors for other opportunities for growth with the help of the development bank.
Katia Montenegro Hoare, President, NIME
"So DFC was one of our first supporters and partners since the beginning of our creation in 2022. So we have been working together in different opportunities and programs. They have been supporting us in different expos and different programs that we have. We realized that one of the main challenges for women owned businesses is this access to finance so this collaboration came about in order to address this specific challenge. Our aim is to develop programs together and financial products together that address the needs of women owned businesses. And of course as well as to support women in business in terms of financial literacy, financial inclusion and different areas that can allude then to access finance."
"So we started with approximately 35 members. We have been growing organically every day and we are now at 220 members and now as Mr Anderson mentioned we grow everyday. We have different industries: agriculture, textile, we have food and industry. We have different areas and we intend to continue growing you know in terms of access to technology as well as innovative businesses we have under our NIME membership."
DFC's CEO says that their membership continues to grow, and it is paramount that they create inclusive provisions that will cater to and benefit women entrepreneurs, the ones who make the most of the opportunities that they have to offer.
Henry Anderson, CEO, DFC
"It's very important for DFC's new corporate philosophy. We are pushing strategic alliances for many years. DFC has been weaving gender mainstream in everything that we do. We want to empower women, we want to create more financial inclusion. We have been collaborating with NIME from the founding of NIME so this is just taking the relationship to a more formal level as we work to develop programs and products that will support their members and women in general."
"So our portfolio doubled last year where we target women entrepreneurs. The value, 70%, 71% of that portfolio is women or entrepreneurship portfolio is actually being taken up by women so we are seeing massive growth there."
"As I said when we signed this MOU, DFC is for Belize so when you work with DFC whatever value we create goes back in that is our only purpose to make Belize grow, to grow the economy and to grow the quality of lives of Belizeans so this is symbiotic when you look at what DFC does the rates we offer the services we have as a development finance institution, because we are not a commercial bank and we are not competing with them but we are actually the development finance institution, or the financial institution for women at this point, women in business."
