Women Entrepreneurship: SECP issues guidelines
ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), has released guidelines for the issuance of Gender Bonds to increase the financial inclusion of women and encourage female entrepreneurship.
The guidelines issued pursuant to Section 172 of the Securities Act, 2015, aim to facilitate companies and issuers of debt securities to diversify their source of financing and provide an additional financial instrument to a particular class of investors for women entrepreneurship. As a step towards the promotion of gender equality – the issuance of gender bonds will improve women’s access to leadership positions and gender-positive corporate policies.
As per the gender bond guidelines, all issuers who are eligible to issue debt securities, including sukuk bonds, either by way of public offer or private placement are eligible to issue Gender Bonds, as long as ensuring compliance with the applicable regulatory framework.
Moreover, the number of funds raised from the issuance of gender bonds shall be utilized to finance projects related to women uplift and economic empowerment such as access to finance/credit; micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise development; agriculture development; financial literacy and women entrepreneurship training, disaster risk management; housing for a low-income segment of women, etc.
Like other debt instruments, such as green, social, and sustainability bonds, a gender bond can have any type of financial structure as a general bond, a project bond, or a securitization scheme.
Gender bonds are a relatively recent development and still nascent in the field of finance. Private parties have issued internationally Gender-labelled bonds, ranging from large commercial banks to NGOs, to multilateral development banks.
Meanwhile, Most gender bonds issued have relied on the Institute of Capital Market Association (ICMA)’s Social Bond Principles, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles as reference standards for entrepreneurship.
SECP has issued guidelines that would help women entrepreneurs to start their businesses. They will facilitate them to execute SME plans.
