Loan facility for women entrepreneurs in Latvia

At the headquarters of Latvia’s Hansabanka, Baiba Circene, head of the Commercial Banking Department, has had a busy time of it this spring. NIB’s loan facility for women entrepreneurs in the Baltic countries has come in for widespread publicity and has attracted a great deal of interest, with Hansabanka fielding a large number of inquiries about credit opportunities.
“We have had many calls from women wanting to start up on their own,” says Baiba Circene, “but if their financial plans have been incomplete we have had to turn them down.” Loans under the women’s facility are granted at a lower rate of interest than ordinary loans, but otherwise the terms are the same as with Hansabanka’s regular lending.

“The real target group for women’s loans,” Baiba Circene continues, “is small firms outside Riga. In Riga itself, entrepreneurs often have access to ordinary loans, whereas outside the capital things are more difficult. This is a very lopsided situation, with 75% of the country’s economic activity located in Riga, which also commands most of our skilled manpower.”

So far, women’s loans have been approved to nine firms, mainly in the service sector. These women entrepreneurs run food stores and train hairdressers, for example. By definition, the firms are owned by or mainly employ women. Most of the firms have contracted loans for the renovation of their facilities. Baiba Circene predicts that the programme will soon be fully subscribed. Out of a total credit frame of 200,000 Latvian lats, 180,000 have been disbursed already.

Successful IT consultants

One of the Latvian firms obtaining a women’s loan is PC Konsultants, which offers software and training courses to other businesses. PC Konsultants, which operates in Kuldiga, a typical small town in the west of Latvia, has been granted a loan for the renovation of its new office and trading premises in the town centre.

Antra Dilāne and her husband, Aldis Dilāns, have worked hard and succeeded. Antra Dilāne describes the operation. “Our town has other IT companies which specialise in the Internet and technical satellite links. Our niche is IT training and courses. We sell software and we offer training courses to our customers. And we run a phone-in user support service.”

Their services are employed mainly by corporate customers but also by public authorities. They have an estimated 150 active customers at present.

“In this business, nothing stands still and we have to keep up with developments,” says Aldis Dilāns, who is in charge of the technical side of the business. New legislation, e.g. on accounting records, has, he says, put new demands on businesses and at the same time created a demand for new accounting programs. “Our job, then, is to keep abreast of the situation and offer our customers the latest software in this field as well.”

The company now has six employees, and will soon be expanding and taking on two more women workers. “But,” says Antra Dilāne, “attracting skilled labour to our town isn’t easy.” The couple sees a bright future ahead of them. They want to develop their Internet services and hope to be able to offer an on-line connection. Today one-third of PC users in Kuldiga has access to the Internet. Aldis Dilāns predicts that, as time goes on, more and more private persons will come to be included among their customers.