Nearly half of women business owners in the UAE face challenges in raising capital, with eight out of 10 tapping into their personal savings, a survey has found.
More than half of the female entrepreneurs surveyed also faced stereotypes such as being considered less capable of making tough decisions, according to Visa’s Women SMB Digitalisation Index, which was released on Thursday.
The index, which assesses businesses using multiple indicators, found that companies owned by women in the UAE scored highly on digital marketing, online presence and customer engagement.
“Women entrepreneurs face unique challenges, such as limited access to capital, and dealing with stereotypes, which often complicate the already complex digitalisation journey in today's business landscape,” said Salima Gutieva, Visa's vice president and country manager for the UAE.
About 60 per cent of respondents faced challenges in securing funds for digitalisation due to high implementation costs, lack of investor understanding of the benefits, and hesitance caused by a lack of technical expertise, the index found.
If they received additional funds, most respondents said the amount would be invested in new technologies (43 per cent), advertising and marketing (42 per cent) and creating new products and services (41 per cent).
Although a large majority of the respondents plan to digitise their businesses in the future, accepting digital payments from customers was stated as the top challenge while running a business by 76 per cent of the women surveyed.
Meanwhile, about 40 per cent of the respondents cited leadership as their top motivation for becoming an entrepreneur, followed by financial independence at 38 per cent.
The UAE has been focusing heavily on boosting female entrepreneurship.
Earlier this month, Abdullah bin Touq, Minister of Economy, said that women-led start-ups and businesses would play an important role in driving the country’s economic growth.
The government has passed laws and policies over the past 15 years to enhance women's contribution to society and the nation's sustainable economic development, reflecting its commitment to women's empowerment across economic, social and work spheres, Mr bin Touq said during an event in Dubai.
“As a result, today, women represent half of the country’s workforce and their representation in boardrooms went up from 4 per cent to 8.8 per cent in just a couple of years,” he said.
“Besides, the UAE has the highest share of women in parliament at 50 per cent and is also among those countries with the largest number of women ministers at 28 per cent.”
Twenty-five thousand Emirati women entrepreneurs owned 50,000 businesses valued at Dh60 billion ($16.3 billion) in 2022, according to Nama Women Advancement, a Sharjah-based establishment contributing to inclusion and closing the gender gap.
That is up from about 23,000 Emirati women running businesses worth Dh50 billion in 2019, data showed.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'
Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.
Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.
"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.
"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.
"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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