Skip to main content

Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund

Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund has been created to empower women entrepreneurs.

What is the objective of Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund?

A dedicated ‘Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund’ has been set up to catalyse and make available medium term to long term debt financing to women entrepreneurs to enable them to invest in viable enterprises. This fund will also incentivize first-time women entrepreneurs to start their enterprises and also support existing women-owned enterprises to grow and scale-up.

What are the schemes under Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund?

Individual women-led enterprises would be provided the following benefits under Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund –

Reimbursement of Credit Guarantee fees to lending institutions

  • The fund will extend support in form of reimbursement of actual credit guarantee fees incurred by banks / financial institutions for taking credit guarantee cover under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) or Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units (CGFMU) under National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC). 
  • Actual credit guarantee fees will be reimbursed to banks / lending institutions for providing loans to individual women Self Help Group (SHG) members under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) for loans up to ₹5 Lakh for a maximum period of 5 years. 
  • In case of loan amount exceeding ₹5 lakh, reimbursement of credit guarantee fees will be done in proportion to the loan amount.

Interest Subvention on Prompt Repayment

  • Women entrepreneurs making prompt repayment of credit to financial institutions will be provided 2% interest subvention. 
  • The interest subvention will be provided to SHGs on loan outstanding up to ₹1.5 lakh per borrower. 
  • In case of loan outstanding amount exceeding ₹1.5 lakh, interest subvention will be limited to the ceiling of ₹1.5 lakh only. 
  • Interest subvention will be provided to individual women entrepreneur up to a maximum duration of 3 years.

The above benefits will be provided to an individual only once.

How will the schemes under Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund be implemented?

The implementation of schemes under Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund will be managed by the same Nodal Bank implementing the Interest Subvention Scheme for Women SHGs under DAY-NRLM. 

Reimbursement of credit guarantee fees to lending institutions

  • Credit Guarantee fees charged (on actual basis) by CGTMSE or CGFMU under NCGTC for loans extended to individual women SHG members under DAY-NRLM only will be considered for reimbursement.
  • Reimbursement of credit guarantee fees will be considered for a borrower only once.

Interest Subvention on Bank loan to individual SHG members for enterprises

  • The scheme is limited to Women SHG members being supported under DAY - NRLM in rural areas only.
  • Interest subvention will be provided to an individual women entrepreneur only once.
  • All banks extending credit for enterprises fully or partially owned by women SHG members under DAY-NRLM at interest rate equivalent to (1-year MCLR + max 3% spread) or maximum of 14% per annum will be eligible to claim interest subvention.
  • Lending Institutions should ensure that overlapping interest subvention schemes from multiple sources should not be combined for a single borrower.
  • Interest subvention can be claimed only for the period the account remained standard. No interest subvention will be payable for the period the account remained classified as ‘Non-Performing Asset (NPA)’. In case account classified as NPA subsequently turns as standard asset on account of recovery of overdues, no subvention amount will be payable for the period the account remained classified as NPA.
  • Participating banks should credit the interest subvention amount in respective loan account within 3 days of the receipt of funds from Nodal Bank. In case the loan account is closed prior to credit of the interest subvention account, credit of the amount should be done in the savings account (if any) of the same customers. In case any amount could not be credited to respective beneficiary account, the same should be returned to Department of Rural Development (DoRD).


References

Reserve Bank of India. (2024, April 16). 'Master Circular – Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)'. Retrieved from https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=12665&Mode=0


Follow at - Telegram   Instagram   LinkedIn   X   Facebook

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Payments Vision 2028

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the Payments Vision 2028. Payments Vision RBI has been publishing Payments Vision documents since 2001. These documents provide a strategic direction for development of the payment and settlement systems in India. The previous vision document covered the period up to 2025. Payments Vision 2028 Duration – up to December 2028 Theme – Shaping India’s Payment Frontier Focus Areas –  User empowerment Safeguards against fraud Efficiency of cross-border payment frameworks  Promoting ease of doing business Consists of 15 specific initiatives to be taken up –   Specific initiatives Inclusivity and resilience Framework for interoperability in Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) Safety in digital payments Enabling or disabling transactions across digital payment modes via issuer channels Shared responsibility framework with both the customer’s bank (issuer) and the beneficiary’s bank jointly be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Credit Facilities – Digital Lending Guidelines

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued directions on credit facilities offered by various regulated entities. This article summarises the directions applicable to digital lending. To whom are the directions applicable? The directions are applicable to the following Regulated Entities (REs) – Commercial Banks  Small Finance Banks (SFBs) Local Area Banks (LABs) Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) Rural Co-operative Banks – State Co-operative Banks (StCBs) Central Co-operative Banks (CCBs) All India Financial Institutions (AIFIs) regulated by RBI – Export Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) National Housing Bank (NHB) Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) for all layers – Deposit taking NBFC (NBFC-D) NBFC-Investment and Credit Companies (NBFC-ICC) NBFC-Factor  NBFC-Micro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Credit Facilities – Lending against Gold and Silver Collateral

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued directions on credit facilities offered by various regulated entities. This article summarises the directions applicable to lending against gold and silver collateral. To whom are the directions applicable? The directions are applicable to the following Regulated Entities (REs) – Commercial Banks  Small Finance Banks (SFBs) Local Area Banks (LABs) Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) Rural Co-operative Banks – State Co-operative Banks (StCBs) Central Co-operative Banks (CCBs) Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) for all layers – Deposit taking NBFC (NBFC-D) NBFC-Investment and Credit Companies (NBFC-ICC) NBFC-Factor  NBFC-Micro Finance Institutions (NBFC-MFI)  NBFC-Infrastructure Finance Company (NBFC-IFC)  Infrastructure Debt Fund-NBFC (IDF-NBFC)  Housing Finance Company (HFC)  To whom are the directions partially applicable? The prudential regulations are not applicable to ‘NBFCs-B...
Post a Comment
Read more

Regulations for Authorised Persons

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a revised framework for authorisation of any person as an Authorised Person under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999. Who can act as an Authorised Person? No person shall act as an authorised person without obtaining an authorisation from the RBI. A person seeking authorisation as an authorised person may apply to the RBI through the PRAVAAH portal (https://pravaah.rbi.org.in) to the regional office concerned of the RBI under whose jurisdiction the registered office of the applicant is established. RBI shall consider applications for fresh authorisation under 3 categories, namely, Authorised Dealer (AD) Category-I, AD Category-II and AD Category-III. Which entities are eligible to act as an Authorised Person? Category Eligible entities AD Category-I A bank licensed by the RBI. AD Category-II A bank licensed by the RBI or a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) registered with the RB...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guidelines on Money Changing Activities (Updated as on May 06, 2026)

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has updated the guidelines on money changing activities. What are the guidelines for appointment of agents / franchisee? RBI had permitted Authorised Dealers (ADs) Category - I, ADs Category - II and Full Fledged Money Changers (FFMCs) to enter into agency or franchisee agreements at their option for the purpose of carrying restricted money changing business i.e. conversion of foreign currency notes, coins or travellers' cheques into Indian Rupees (INR).  A franchisee can be any entity which has a place of business and a minimum Net Owned Funds of ₹10 lakh.  Franchisees can undertake only restricted money changing business. Franchisees of AD Category - I / AD Category - II / FFMCs functioning within 10 kms from the borders of Pakistan and Bangladesh may also sell the currency of the bordering country, with the prior approval of RBI.  Other franchisees of AD Category - I / AD Category - II / FFMCs cannot sell foreign currency. An authorised pers...
Post a Comment
Read more