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Woman credit seekers up 3x in 5 years, says Niti Aayog & Cibil report

2025-03-03 00:00:00.0 商业标准报-经济和政策原网页

The number of women borrowers availing of retail credit in India has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22 per cent between 2019 and 2024, nearly trebling during this period, according to a report by India’s official policy think tank, NITI Aayog, and credit information company TransUnion Cibil, released on Monday.

The report said this reflects a major shift in financial behaviour, with women increasingly leveraging credit to meet personal and professional goals.

“Since 2019, their (women’s) share in business loans and gold loans has increased by 14 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. By 2024, 42 per cent of loans availed of by women were for personal finance, a slight increase from 39 per cent in 2019. While the credit supply to women in business sectors has improved, the majority of loans availed of by women continue to be against gold — 36 per cent of all loans availed of by women in 2024 were gold loans, compared to 19 per cent in 2019,” said the report, titled From Borrowers to Builders: Women’s Role in India’s Financial Growth Story.

The Aayog said about 60 per cent of women borrowers availing of credit are from semi-urban or rural areas.

According to the report, despite numerous initiatives, a sizeable number of women-owned and managed businesses remain concentrated in sectors such as apparel, textile, tobacco products, beauty, and food and beverage.

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The think tank’s research indicated that women entrepreneurs need continuous support throughout the critical stages of their entrepreneurship journey to ensure survival, growth, and profitability.

The report noted that credit for financing business purposes — such as business loans, commercial vehicle and equipment loans, and loans against property — saw about 3.7 million new loan accounts opened by women, with disbursements totalling ？1.9 trillion.

While these accounts have increased 4.6x in five years, such loans constitute only 3 per cent of the total availed of by women borrowers in 2024.

“The role of financial institutions in designing inclusive products tailored to women’s needs, along with policy initiatives that address structural barriers, will be instrumental in accelerating this momentum. To achieve this goal under the aegis of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform, the Financing Women Collaborative (FWC) has been constituted. We seek more financial sector stakeholders to join FWC and contribute to this mission,” said the Aayog’s Chief Executive Officer B V R Subrahmanyam.

Meanwhile, credit for personal finance needs — such as personal loans, consumer durables loans, home ownership, and vehicle loans — continues to account for the major share of credit availed of by women, with 43 million loans opened, amounting to ？4.8 trillion.

As of December, 2.7 million women were actively monitoring their credit scores, with several seeing upward movements in their scores after regular monitoring.

The Aayog observed that more women from non-metro regions are actively tracking their credit compared to those in metro areas. The number of women self-monitoring their credit scores has grown by 48 per cent in non-metro regions and by 30 per cent in metro areas.

“Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana accounted for 49 per cent of all self-monitoring women, with the southern region leading at 10.2 million. Northern and central states, including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, saw the highest compound annual growth rate in active women borrowers over the past five years,” the report said.