Financing for Women Pays Off

Statistics show millions of women have far less access to financing than men, but this new initiative aims to close that gap, as the technical people pledged to today. Executive Director of BELTRAIDE, Dr. Leroy Almendarez and General Manager of the SFC, Natalie Goff, explained that contrary to popular belief, statistics also show that women do a much better job at managing money than men.

Dr. Leroy Almendarez

Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Exec. Dir., BELTRAIDE

“Women don’t have as much access to micro-finance or financing because they think they’re riskier; yet women default less on loans when they borrow.  They take better care of the home; they are the general manager of the home, but too often we don’t boast that. These are the things that we have to look at. And just like Minister Mai just mentioned, the partnership here – women farmers – as a matter of fact we just launched a program called Gender Inclusive Belize Enterprise Revolving Fund. These will look at creating greater opportunities for women because it’s necessary. These opportunities, sometimes all that is needed is an idea, some training, or access to finance. That’s all that is needed because they already have the know-how and as we said before, they’re better managers and they will see things through to the end.”

Natalie Goff

Natalie Goff, Gen. Mgr., DFC

“At DFC, sixty-five percent of our student loans are to women but we have to ensure that jobs are there when they graduate or the entrepreneurship opportunities are there when they graduate. This is what this MoU is trying to do today. We also testify that of the loans we give – the loans to women – they have less arrears. Women pay better than men. It may be because they take more calculated risks and in a society where there’s so much uncertainty, maybe that is required, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t take risks.”