MSMEs: Credit demand from women-led MSMEs doubled during festive season, survey shows

Data from a private survey has shown that the credit demand from women-led MSMEs doubled by the end of the festive months of 2022 as compared to the pre-Covid-19 festive season of July – October 2019.

According to a NeoGrowth survey, the two-fold rise in credit requirements of women-led small businesses is driven by strong consumer demand post economic revival and subdued festive season spending over the past two years. NeoGrowth is a digital lender which focuses on MSMEs.

Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai saw the highest credit demand from women-led MSMEs, as per the survey.

“The festive season proved to be reasonably strong for the industry, after two years of Covid-19 disruption. Backed by this buoyant consumer demand pan-India, we registered that women MSMEs, in particular, sought more credit across business segments,” said Arun Nayyar, Whole-Time Director and CEO, NeoGrowth.
Fashion & lifestyle, F&B, FMCG & retail segments saw higher credit inquiries as compared to other sectors among women-borrowers, the company said.

The growth was computed based on the comparison of credit inquiries received from over 30,000 MSMEs during the pre-pandemic festive months of 2019 and 2022, i.e., July-October.

Data from the survey further shows that similar to 2019, metro cities continued to lead the overall MSME festive credit demand in 2022. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Vijaywada, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata showed strong credit demand this festive season.

FMCG and retail segment saw a 2X increase in credit demand in the 2022 during the festive months as compared to the same period in 2019.

“There was a ~70% surge in credit demand from Consumer Durables and Electronics retailers. Furthermore, the Fashion & Lifestyle segment witnessed a close to 40% uptick in MSME credit demand this year, as compared to 2019,” the company said.