How TransUnion CIBIL is Advancing Financial Inclusion with the Women Entrepreneurship Platform

As a global information and insights company, TransUnion’s ability to share data on the challenges different demographic groups face can help advance the public discourse on credit access. In both developed and developing markets, women continue to drive the primary position of household spending, though a common theme observed in TransUnion credit research across markets like India is a continued credit gender gap.

However, according to TransUnion CIBIL data, demand for business loans by women has increased significantly in the last five years, growing 3.9 times from FY 2019 through FY 2024. During the same period, the number of women borrowers holding business loans increased by 10 percent — with women constituting 38 percent of the 15 million borrowers with live business loans as of March 2024.

As women in India continue to enter the credit market, we anticipate they may need additional financial and credit education tools for budgeting, managing and monitoring their credit profiles, and learning how to pay their obligations regularly so they can stay engaged and confident in leveraging credit for upward mobility. To meet this demand, TransUnion CIBIL and the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), a public-private partnership platform, partnered to launch SEHER — a credit education program enhancing financial literacy and business skills among women entrepreneurs.

TransUnion CIBIL and WEP announced the SEHER program Friday, July 5 at the Financing Women Collaborative (FWC) convening which aimed at expanding access to finance for women entrepreneurs and equipping them with the knowledge to build strong credit histories and better manage their finances. The initiative seeks to enable women to access the financial tools needed for business growth and job creation.

“Business growth is directly dependent on credit access, credit awareness and financial literacy,” shared Rajesh Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, TransUnion CIBIL. “We aim to propagate financial knowledge and improve the skills of women entrepreneurs so that they can manage their businesses successfully to achieve sustained growth.”

Accelerating women’s entrepreneurship — particularly in rural areas across the country — has the potential to create over 30 million new women-owned enterprises in India, generating 150 to 170 million jobs. This illustrates the critical role of women entrepreneurs and credit education for the region’s economic future.

“At TransUnion CIBIL, we are committed to leveraging our data and analytics expertise to improve credit access for women entrepreneurs, recognizing their vital role in economic growth,” said Padmini Vora, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, TransUnion CIBIL. “We actively collaborate with government bodies to drive programs aimed at improving credit access by enabling financial institutions to assess the credit worthiness of women more effectively.”

TransUnion CIBIL and WEP’s partnership seeks to enable an ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in India to grow and prosper. For more about TransUnion’s financial inclusion impact, read our 2023 Sustainability Report.