Government mentoring schemes can provide significant benefits to women-led and start-up businesses, particularly those from disadvantaged and rural communities who face unique challenges when it comes to starting and growing a business.
They lament having limited access to funding, markets, and support services which hinders their ability to thrive in business. In response to these challenges, governments in various countries have launched mentoring schemes aimed at supporting women entrepreneurs in rural areas.
These schemes provide focused guidance, training, and networking opportunities to help women develop their businesses and overcome the obstacles they face. In this post,
we will explore how female entrepreneurs in rural and disadvantaged communities can benefit from government mentoring schemes, highlight the specific challenges they face and the ways in which these programmes can help them achieve their goals.
Government mentoring schemes can provide female-led businesses with access to experienced mentors who can provide guidance, support, and access to valuable networks. This can be particularly important for businesses that are just starting out or that face challenges in accessing resources and networks.
Mentoring programmes can help women develop their skills, knowledge, and confidence. These programmes can also help to build their credibility with investors, customers, and other stakeholders.
Participants can improve their business performance, by gaining knowledge, experience, guidance and support in areas such as strategy, finance, marketing, and operations. This can help businesses to exceed expectations, grow and become more sustainable over time.
Mentoring Schemes in Action
In the United States, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a range of mentoring programmes for small businesses, including the SCORE programme, which pairs small business owners with experienced mentors. SCORE, which stands for Service Corps of Retired Executives, was founded in 1964 as a nonprofit organisation with a mission to help small businesses succeed.
The services are free of charge and the programme provides one-on-one mentoring, workshops, webinars and online resources to help entrepreneurs and small business owners start and grow their businesses.
SCORE has helped over 11 million entrepreneurs and small business owners since its inception, and in 2020 alone, SCORE volunteers provided over one million hours of mentoring to small businesses across the United States.
In Africa, the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) programme is an initiative led by the African Development Bank (AfDB) that aims to bridge the gender gap in accessing business finance for female entrepreneurs in Africa.
Launched in 2016, the AFAWA programme has a goal of providing $3 billion in financing to women-led businesses in Africa, over a ten-year period. The programme seeks to achieve this by working with financial institutions and other stakeholders to increase access to finance for women entrepreneurs through a range of interventions.
One of the key components of the AFAWA programme is promoting gender equality by increasing women's access to finance from financial institutions that lend to women-led businesses in Africa. The programme is committed to increasing the availability of affordable and appropriate financial products and services to start and grow women led and startup businesses.
The AFAWA programme has helped to create numerous employment opportunities for women and other members of the community as well as providing mentoring and support to women who may lack collateral or credit history.
In the Caribbean, the Caribbean Export Development Agency's Women Empowered Through Export (WE-Xport) programme is an innovative initiative that seeks to increase the participation of women-led businesses in international trade and promoting greater gender equality in the Caribbean region.
Launched in 2019, the WE-Xport programme provides a range of business support services to women entrepreneurs, including training, coaching, mentoring, and networking opportunities. The aim is to help women-led businesses build their capacity to export their products and services to international markets.
The program offers strategic training and coaching services to help: women: -
Build their knowledge and skills in areas such as market research and product development
Mentoring to help them develop their business strategies
Networking opportunities and access to trade missions, trade shows, and other international events
Providing support services to navigate the challenges of exporting
Accessing new markets by providing market research, market entry strategies, and other support services
By promoting the participation of female-led businesses in international trade, the WE-Xport programme can help to drive economic growth in the Caribbean region and helps to promote gender equality, create jobs and increase revenue.
In India, the Pradhan Mantri Yuva Yojana (PMY) programme is an initiative launched by the Government of India in 2016 to promote entrepreneurship education, training and support among young people in the age group of 18 to 35 years. The programme seeks to create an enabling ecosystem for entrepreneurship by providing access to finance, incubation, and mentorship support.
Key components of the PMY programme include entrepreneurship education and training through online and offline modules; access to finance through various schemes such as the MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) scheme which is a flagship programme launched in 2015 to provide access to finance for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) across the country.
The main objective of the MUDRA scheme provides loans up to Rs. 10 lakhs to micro and small enterprises through a network of banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and micro finance institutions (MFIs).
The MUDRA scheme has three categories of loans: -
Shishu: Loans up to Rs. 50,000 are provided to start-ups and early-stage businesses.
Kishore: Loans between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 5 lakhs are provided to businesses that have already started operations and need additional finance to expand.
Tarun: Loans between Rs. 5 lakhs and Rs. 10 lakhs are provided to established businesses that need additional finance to grow.
The MUDRA scheme is lauded because it provides:-
Finance for small businesses that may not have access to traditional sources of finance such as banks
Jobs by promoting the growth of small businesses and reducing unemployment
Drives economic growth by promoting the creation of new businesses and the expansion of existing ones and
Special focus on empowering female entrepreneurs
Potential challenges of the MUDRA scheme include the high rate of non-performing assets (NPAs) and the risk of loan defaults by small businesses. Nevertheless, the MUDRA scheme represents an important step towards promoting entrepreneurship and supporting the growth of small businesses in India.
The Impact of Mentoring Programmes on Female-led Businesses
You cannot deny it, but there are many advantages for women to accessing government mentoring schemes.
These schemes have the ability to reach a large number of businesses and entrepreneurs, particularly those from disadvantaged and rural communities. Mentoring schemes can also be designed to address specific challenges and needs, such as those faced by women-led or start-up businesses.
However, its not all joy. Disadvantages can include limited resources and capacity; corruption and challenges in effectively matching mentors and mentees.
Government mentoring schemes show they can have a meaningful impact on the success of women-led and start-up businesses. For example, a study of the SCORE programme in the United States found that small businesses that received mentoring services had higher revenues and were more likely to remain in business than those that did not.
In addition, government mentoring schemes helped to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), by supporting and ensuring businesses from underrepresented groups and rural communities have access to the resources and support they need to thrive and succeed in the long term.
Do you think the post highlights the positive aspects of government mentoring schemes or it needs more evidence it works? Do you believe that government mentoring schemes still have a place in supporting female led business? What could be the alternative to these programmes? Share your views in the comments section below.
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