Red tape, discrimination a constraint for businesswomen
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For Moudy Lintuuran, expanding her rubber supply business was not easy. Trying to obtain a bank loan last year, she had to deal with a maze of bureaucracy and discriminative treatment.
"When I stepped into a bank (providing loans for small- and medium-sized enterprises), as recommended by a fellow businesswomen, it felt as if I was in the forest," she told The Jakarta Post.
"It was the first time I applied for a loan from a bank. I needed about Rp 500 million (US$53,763)."
To get the loan, she offered her Rp 700 million house as collateral.
However, she said, when it came to the actual process of applying for the loan, she had to follow a long-chain of bureaucratic procedures.
She needed to present a business plan to the bank and legalize the business permit at the notary office.
"Then I found out that the amount that I requested was not approved. In fact, the bank could grant no more than Rp 500 million loans," Moudy said.
Finally, the bank approved a loan of Rp 300 million.
She said it took her two weeks to arrange all the paperwork and get the money.
Moudy, who is the general secretary at the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Businesswomen's Association (IWAPI), could consider herself lucky for just getting a loan at all.
IWAPI chairwoman Suryani Motik said many of her members were facing problems in accessing credit from financial institutions for SMEs due to existing misconceptions.
"These misconceptions and our paternalistic culture put women who are income earners in second place," she said on Wednesday during a workshop held by IWAPI in conjunction with program for eastern Indonesia for SME assistance (PENSA) -- an affiliate of the World Bank's private arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Furthermore, Suryani explained, Indonesian wives could not get their own tax numbers (NPWP) since Article 8 of Law No. 17/2000 on income tax stipulated that married women were prohibited from getting loans independent of their husbands.
However, women were good potential clients of financial institutions. According to a survey conducted by IWAPI and the International Labor Organization (ILO), 87 percent of SMEs respondents in Jakarta were women -- the main earners in the family with a loan recovery rate of 97 percent.
IWAPI and IFC-Pensa had already signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a year to train women entrepreneurs.
The agreement emphasized capacity building, public relations and technical assistance, including conducting evaluations.
"Improving access to finance through technical assistance is part of the core-competence of IFC," IFC-Pensa program manager Hans Shrader said.
Bido said IFC-Pensa would provide training and technical assistance for IWAPI members about how to obtain loans, manage family businesses and deal with taxation.
Suryani expected the joint effort would yield positive results. "We hope we will be able to determine what the problems are," she said.
IWAPI and IFC-Pensa plan to issue a Voice of Women Entrepreneurship magazine in the future targetting bankers and other business executives and also plans to form a business development service.
Meanwhile, a bank executive, who spoke during the workshop, said his bank did not discriminate against customers based on gender.
"We'd rather prioritize the business-worthiness of our customers," said Bank Bukopin business manager Suherly.
He said that requirements in applying loans for SMEs were the same for everyone. Bukopin put no limit on loans to SMEs, he said.
Suherly said that last year, Bukopin provided Rp 8 trillion in SME loans. It was likely to increase the funds for SMEs by 30 percent this year, he said. (004)