Entrepreneurs rarely like to reflect on their failures. But for Ho Thi Hai Ngan, a 33-year-old businesswoman from Vietnam, lessons she learned when her first two commercial ventures shuttered paved the way for her eventual success. The most important takeaway was to secure enough funding to expand her next business, an electronics shop she and her husband opened in 2016.
This need for capital is common among small- and medium-enterprise (SME) business owners. But it can be problematic for women, who often face lenders’ biases as well as roadblocks related to lack of collateral.
When Ngan’s shop started doing well, she looked to Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank), an IFC partner, to help it grow even more. VPBank loaned her $25,000—with receivables pledged as security. It turned out to be a turning point for the business. The funding allowed her to explore new corporate clients in the neighborhood, and she started installing air-conditioning systems for these offices. The company is now worth $400,000, a fourfold increase in the six months since Ngan received the loan.
Those are exactly the kind of results IFC envisioned when we provided a $125 million financing package to VPBank in 2016. Twenty-five percent of IFC’s funding came from the Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility (WEOF), a global facility with funding earmarked for the exclusive use of female entrepreneurs.
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