• Published on 6 August 2024
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DANA and Ant International hold SisBerdaya 2024 to empower women entrepreneurs

DANA and Ant International, a digital payment and financial services leader headquartered in Singapore, announced the return of the SisBerdaya programme for 2024, a local initiative designed to empower women entrepreneurs in the micro and ultra-micro categories, through training, mentoring and competitions.

The initiative aims to help women entrepreneurs develop their business management and digital skills to remain competitive in the digital economy while being able to innovate and grow their businesses.

Registration for the SisBerdaya programme has been open from 29 July until 21 August 2024. SisBerdaya targets two categories of MSMEs, namely the ultra-micro category for businesses that have monthly income from IDR 1 million  ($62.41) to IDR 10 million ($624.06) and have zero to three employees, and the micro category for businesses with monthly income from IDR 10 million ($624.06) to IDR 30 million ($1,872) and employees numbering four to 10 people.

The programme will be implemented in several stages, starting with registration in August, by grouping participants directly into three main regions namely West Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java outside Greater Jakarta), East Indonesia (Sulawesi, Bali, NTT, NTB, Ambon, Papua), and Greater Jakarta (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi).

The next phase is closed judging to filter the participants into 195 applicants in September, followed by an online mentoring period. Then, qualified participants will enter the next stage, in the form of mentorship and skills training for one month, by experts from DANA, Ant International, government, and industry partners namely Women's World Banking and Great Nusa by Bina Nusantara.

Olavina Harahap, director of Communications of DANA, stated: "The success of SisBerdaya 2023 has proven to have opened insights, opportunities, and access to digital finance for participants to continue developing their businesses. Therefore, this year's SisBerdaya Programme is even more inclusive. As the theme is 'It's Women Entrepreneurs' Turn to Go Global', we want to invite women entrepreneurs to be able to open new perspectives, raise their optimism, and increase their competitiveness to the global level. In accordance with our commitment to support the development of MSMEs with the principles of inclusivity and innovation for all people without exception, this year we have also added a new category to it, namely DisBerdaya or Disabilitas Berdaya, which is specifically for MSMEs for women with disabilities. We are confident that the return of SisBerdaya will be able to increase the capabilities of women entrepreneurs in Indonesia inclusively, realise economic independence, and accelerate the digital economy."

Noudhy Valdryno, director of public policy and business development, Indonesia at Ant International, said: "With an aligned vision and mission, Ant International and DANA are committed to increasing inclusivity in the digital economy in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, especially women entrepreneurs. Through three aspects, from access to financing, adaptation to digital services, to professional business management capabilities, Ant International aims to reduce barriers for all business owners and empower them to digitise and achieve growth, while stimulating the local economy. We are optimistic that SisBerdaya can be a driver to expand opportunities for women and entrepreneurs with disabilities to grow, and be able to reach their full potential to compete on a global scale."

SisBerdaya initiative is also supported by the National Council for Financial Inclusion (DNKI), as an implementation of inclusive finance for the target segment of women's groups. This support was stated in the Signing of a Joint Communiqué between DANA, DNKI, and SisBerdaya programme collaborator partners, including Ant International, Women's World Banking, GreatNusa by Bina Nusantara, Perempuan Tangguh Indonesia, and Himpunan Wanita Disabilitas Indonesia.

Ferry Irawan, deputy I for macroeconomic and financial coordination, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, said: “Women MSME owners in particular face gender barriers, difficulty in accessing formal financial services, and low financial literacy and inclusion. Around 10% of MSME business actors are not yet included in formal financial services, with most of them using their own capital. Collaborative efforts between stakeholders for economic growth are very important to drive the economy at a macro level. One of them is through the SisBerdaya programme initiated by DANA. Hopefully, this collaboration can continue to produce superior MSMEs that are able to compete not only nationally but also globally. We also represent the government, committed to continuing to support programmes to improve financial literacy and inclusion and empower MSMEs, especially for women and people with disabilities, and hope that this programme can be implemented well, successfully and have an impact that supports national development goals, namely improving financial literacy and inclusion that supports the stability of the financial system to realise a just and prosperous society.”

Irene Heniwati, deputy director of the Department of MSME Development and Consumer Protection (DUPK Bank Indonesia), said: “Digitalisation is about providing easy access for industry. Through this SisBerdaya programme, DANA has dared to initiate a sustainable and inclusive programme for women and people with disabilities to create digital breakthroughs, one example of which is through QRIS specifically for people with disabilities. This is a positive effort to encourage quality and continuity as the key for MSMEs to compete globally.”

Edwin Nurhadi, director of financial inclusion at OJK, said: “We will continue to work with strategic partners, especially DANA, to continue to improve financial literacy in Indonesia. We also hope to continue to improve business capacity with access to financing and training that can be used directly to empower MSMEs for friends with disabilities."

This year, DANA opened a derivative programme entitled DisBerdaya (Disability Empowerment), which is targeted specifically at women entrepreneurs with disabilities under the auspices of Perempuan Tangguh Indonesia (PTI) and Himpunan Wanita Disabilitas Indonesia (HWDI). The DisBerdaya programme will run in parallel with SisBerdaya, focusing on participants who have been curated by PTI and HWDI as many as 50 selected MSMEs, which will later receive training and mentoring, until one day they will become five MSME winners.

In order to achieve this year's vision, SisBerdaya and DisBerdaya programmes will facilitate participants with a series of more in-depth training and mentoring curricula. For example, participants will be provided with training in financial management, the benefits of digital payments, business model canvas, people management and legal basics, and many others.

SisBerdaya and DisBerdaya programmes are expected to play a role in ensuring inclusivity and equal opportunities for all participants, in increasing their business capacity in the future.

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker