Building women entrepreneurs’ financial literacy in Cambodia

In Cambodia, where women own 62 percent of microenterprises, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and other stakeholders are collaborating to promote women’s financial inclusion and build their financial literacy.

“Women play a very important role in our economy60% of bank borrowers, and 65% of microfinance borrowers are women,” explains NBC Deputy Governor, Yim Leat. “However, when they finish school, women often don’t understand the basics of debt, credit loans or savings, meaning they cannot plan their financial portfolio according to their needs.”

In response, NBC has implemented various projects to build women’s financial literacy. “Our first campaign, Let’s Talk Money: Little by Little, aimed to increase women’s awareness of financial products and services, help them prepare for the unexpected, and make more informed and shared money decisions between men and women,” says Mak Reaksmy, Director of NBC’s Regulatory Policy & Risk Assessment Department. “Within three months of launch, it had already reached 1.5 million people.”

“A recent study found that women in Cambodia still lack self-confidence when it comes to making financial transactions, especially digital transactions,” says Dith Nita, Chairwoman of the Cambodia Microfinance Association. “To address this challenge, our association is working with the National Bank of Cambodia and the Ministry of Education to include financial literacy in elementary and high school curricula.”

The National Bank of Cambodia has also established a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Women Affairs to provide financial training to female trainers in schools and communities, and with support from AFI has put in place sex-disaggregated data collection. “This data plays a crucial role and will be used to design future policies about women’s financial inclusion,” says Mak Reaksmy.

You can discover how these initiatives are benefiting women entrepreneurs in our short video, featuring a poultry farmer, a vegetable grower and a drinks wholesaler.

AFI’s global Gender Inclusive Finance workstream is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and other funding partners.