Mexico‘s government supports women entrepreneurs with specific financial products, according to information from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Specifically, Nacional Financiera (Nafin) is incorporating a gender perspective into credit products to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

Nafin has introduced two financial products aimed at women entrepreneurs: Mujeres Empresarias and Mujeres Régimen de Incorporación Fiscal (RIF)-Crezcamos Juntas (Let’s Grow Together).

Both products offer loans with preferential terms to foster the growth and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women.

On the one hand, Mujeres Empresarias offers women-owned businesses up to 5 million pesos (USD 251,000) for working capital and the acquisition of fixed assets.

It does not require collateral for loans of up to 2.5 million pesos (USD 125,000).

On the other hand, Mujeres RIF-Crezcamos Juntas is aimed at women registered in the RIF and offers loans of up to 300,000 pesos (USD 15,000) for working capital and acquisition of fixed assets.

Support for women entrepreneurs

The two products have national coverage. Between 2015 and 2021, 20,234 loans have been granted, for a total amount of 26,184 million pesos (USD 132 million).

Of the loans granted, 16,152 were granted to women-led businesses.

One of the challenges in introducing these financial products was getting commercial banks to accept them.

To meet this challenge, participating banks were sensitized to the need for differentiated financial products for women entrepreneurs with the help of concrete statistics.

Political will that resulted in the coordination of national institutions, the development of new partnerships between national institutions and private banks, and strong local institutions, including commercial banks, were decisive factors in making the two products viable.