{"id":42936,"date":"2018-06-25T20:03:16","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T00:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging21.finca.org\/uncategorized-en-ca\/women-generating-higher-profit-with-finca-loans-in-kyrgyzstan"},"modified":"2024-11-04T02:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T07:07:17","slug":"women-generating-higher-profit-with-finca-loans-in-kyrgyzstan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finca.org\/en-ca\/women-generating-higher-profit-with-finca-loans-in-kyrgyzstan","title":{"rendered":"Women Are Generating Higher Profit Margins With FINCA Loans in Kyrgyzstan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Scott Graham, Director of Research, and Anahit Tevosyan, Associate Director of Research<\/em><\/p>\n

Data from a recent survey of FINCA clients in Kyrgyzstan shows that women-run businesses are generating higher profit margins than their male counterparts. They also create more jobs with FINCA\u2019s loans, which enables them to hire more women and to achieve their business goals.<\/p>\n

Closing the Gender Gap and\u00a0Opening the Doors to Financial Inclusion<\/h2>\n

Financial inclusion<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Kyrgyzstan<\/a>\u00a0is growing fast\u2014much faster, in fact, than most places\u00a0where FINCA works<\/a>. Only 18 percent of adults had a bank account in 2014, but\u2014according to\u00a0the latest Global Findex<\/a>\u2014that number has more than doubled in the last three years. Kyrgyzstan is also one of the few places where the gender gap in financial services is quite small, just about one percent.<\/p>\n

FINCA is doing its part to make sure women don\u2019t fall behind. Over 55 percent of our borrowers in Kyrgyzstan are female and most of them live in rural areas. Some fresh data from a client survey shows that, despite some long-standing challenges, women are running their businesses very prudently\u2014and generating the best social returns.<\/p>\n

Lower Profits, Higher Profit Margins<\/h2>\n

Women are still mostly concentrated in the trading sector, where their annual sales are about $1,000 less than men, and their profits are about 32 percent lower in value. In fact, women\u2019s nominal sales and profits are lower than men\u2019s in every sector, except services.<\/p>\n

But there are some good results when we look at profit margins\u2014the ratio of profits to total sales. On the margins, women who venture beyond their traditional trading activities are running more profitable businesses, sometimes by quite a lot. In small scale manufacturing, such as textile and food production (grouped together as production in the graph below), a woman\u2019s business has a 42 percent profit margin, compared to 27 percent for men. And this difference can be seen across the board.<\/p>\n

\"Profit_margins_by_gender_in_Kyrgyzstan\"