NAIROBI, Kenya, May 6 – In a bid to limit the barriers faced by women-owned businesses to secure contracts with large companies, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has launched a program dubbed Source2Equal which among others, seeks to create awareness within the private sector on the gender gap that exists in corporate procurement.
An initial IFC study revealed that only 3 percent of procurement purchases go to women-owned SMEs underlying the underrepresentation in the corporate space.
Speaking to Capital FM, Anne Kabugi, IFC’s regional Gender Lead – Africa, Gender and Economic Inclusion Group decried that majority of women-led businesses fall below Tier one and mainly supply to big companies(who fall under Tier One) that in turn secure the procurement contracts.
Kabugi said the program seeks to engage with corporate buyers and deepen its impact so that the big companies can deploy resources and procure from more women.
“Women-led businesses face constraints in access to finance, resources business capacity and may not be able to service high contracts,” she said.
Ultimately, she said the program is aimed at promoting women’s entrepreneurship, boost access to critical assets like finance, digital assets, and markets and improve how private sector companies can play role in promoting economic growth.
“While women are half the world’s population, women face challenges and gender inequalities, leadership, employment, constraints in procurement, and inability to access basic services,” she said.
The campaign further seeks to create awareness of commitments cumulatively made by the Buyers participating in the program to address this gender gap, the support provided through S2E Kenya, and subsequently showcase progress made
The IFC study had revealed that among the main challenges faced by women include limited access to capital, lack of access to resources, and limited access to networks and information on tenders.
Corporate buyers, on the other hand, explained that among the challenges faced to reach women entrepreneurs is the inability to find eligible women-owned SMEs to place orders directly with them.
“Existing procurement policies and procedures create unintentional constraints for new women-owned SMEs to compete on equal footing with large or existing suppliers, and a lack of standard pre-qualification processes that are publicly available, which inhibits buyers from inviting potentially eligible WSMEs to participate in tenders,” the study indicated further.
The Corporates participating in the program include ABSA,Unilever,Stanbic,Safaricom,KenGen,Tropical Brands and Bamburi among many others.
