According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), nearly one-third of businesses are owned by women in Nepal. As reported by CBS, women own 29.8% of businesses. But if you look at the recent population data female (50.4%) population is more in comparison to male (49.6%). So we should really raise questions why are women far behind in owning enterprises.

There are varied reasons that it is hard for women to own and run a business. For starters women aren’t believed in and trusted on for starting a business on their own. Informal sector has 77.5% females and 66% males which proves that even if more women wanted to start their own micro-enterprise there is not much of data to show the banking institution for requesting loans as capital.

This is the reason why we at Aloi, thrive to build a digital system so strong yet easy for women to take up loans to start their own micro-enterprises and to build a strong credit history for them. It is not a competition between women versus men owned grassroot business but it is a concern of national economy that the bigger population is far behind to uplift the grassroot level economy.

Panel discussion for the virtual commemoration organized by UNEP

Earlier this week our co-founder and CTO Sonika Manandhar spoke at the panel discussion of the world’s first-ever International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. The panel was held on the 8th of September celebrating and embarking on the journey of efforts to keep the air clean. This year’s 2020 theme was Clean Air for All. For the discussion, our CTO was joined by great personalities like H.E. UNPGA, H.E. Secretary-General of the United Nations, and H.E. Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway.

Aeloi’s CTO talked about how collective grassroots actions are the solution for cleaner air or climate change in general. Kathmandu became a green city pioneer by launching an electric trolley bus in 1975. After that Kathmandu introduced Nepal to 700 electric minibusses driven by women. At the time those minibusses reduced CO₂ equivalent to 17000 to 22000 kg/day compared to buses. Having said that our CTO explained how the same city suffers from air pollution that is five times higher than the safe level right now.

Aeloi’s vision is to support informal sector micro-entrepreneurs in the electric vehicle-led public transport sector with affordable finance. Being a daughter of the former micro-entrepreneur herself, she understands how affordable capital is essential for building a prosperous economy. For instance, Sachita, one of our women safa tempo (electric minibus) drivers is an informal sector micro-entrepreneur, and the lack of enough financial footprints to prove her income leads to distrust of banks. Aeloi being a fintech software company is helping mobilize the grassroots climate heroes who have been working from the very beginning to tackle climate change and air pollution.We had the solution before, we have the solution now, it takes grassroots actions to tackle a global environmental threats like air pollution and climate change.