Despite the rapid growth of women-owned businesses, they tend to start their businesses with less working capital.

Compared to their male counterparts, female entrepreneurs have less access to financing.

It is estimated that women-owned enterprises globally have unmet financial needs of between $260 billion and $320 billion annually.

Microcredit is a common type of microfinance in which a very small loan is offered to a person in order to assist them in starting their own small business or becoming self-employed.

	These borrowers typically have modest incomes, especially those from less developed nations (LDCs).
	Microloans seldom surpass €2,000 and might be as little as €10 to €100.
	Microcredit agreements sometimes have different structures than regular banking; it is possible that there is not even a written agreement.

Most people credit the concept of “microcredit” to the Bengali economist Muhammad Yunus.

In order to fund their respective small companies, a group of women in Bangladesh launched this scheme in 1976 by borrowing $27. The women were able to maintain the company and repay the debt.

The Bangladeshi women who got microcredit lacked the funds to buy the supplies they needed to construct the bamboo stools they would later sell, and each individual borrower would be too risky to fund on their own.

They were able to start production thanks to collective borrowing, with the understanding that the loan would be repaid over time as they made some money

Loans provided to a person or business by a private institution or even a wealthy individual are referred to as private money loans, or simply private money. The group or person is referred to as a private money lender.

	Borrowers are typically given access to private capital without having to meet the conventional eligibility requirements of a bank or other lending institution.
	The main problem is that private money loans can occasionally carry a high level of risk for both the lender and the borrower.
	The borrower has more leeway to use the loan for less-than-optimal objectives when there is less restriction.

For a private lender, risk reduction is crucial since making money is the main objective. Before making a loan offer to a borrower, a private lender considers a variety of different aspects. Some of the most crucial are:

• The borrower’s credit: the credit score of a borrower reflects how timely and regularly the borrower has previously repaid his bills.
• Pricing strategy: How can the lender make sure that the cost of the loan (to the borrower) is competitive with other lenders?
• Exit strategy: The borrower’s plan for when and how they will pay off the debt.

However, it is always a good idea for the lender to exercise due diligence and confirm any information the borrower submitted in order to obtain the loan.

• More than half of EU financing was distributed through the five European structural and investment funds under the long-term EU budget (ESIF).
• The European Commission and the member states of the EU work together to manage them.
• These funds are set up to invest in the development of the labour market and a strong, sustainable European economy.

The ESIF focuse on five areas:

• research and innovation
• digital technologies
• supporting the low-carbon economy
• sustainable management of natural resources
• small businesses

The EU’s €800 billion Next Generation EU program is a temporary recovery tool to aid in the economy's recovery from the coronavirus epidemic and to create a greener, more technologically advanced, and more resilient future.

The European Commission is taking out loans on the financial markets to pay for Next Generation EU (the EU has a strong credit rating, which enables the Commission to borrow money at favourable rates).

The advantage is subsequently transferred by the Commission to the EU Member States directly through loans or to the Union budget through reduced interest payments on borrowings used to fund spending for the economic recovery.

More than 50% of the long-term budget and Next Generation EU are supporting modernisation, for example through:

• Research and innovation, via Horizon Europe
• Fair climate and digital transitions, via the Just Transition Fund and the Digital Europe Programme
• Preparedness, recovery and resilience, via the Recovery and Resilience Facility, rescEU and a new health programme, EU4Health

In addition, the package pays attention to:

• Modernising traditional policies such as cohesion and the common agricultural policy, to maximise their contribution to the Union’s priorities
• Fighting climate change, with 30% of the EU funds, the highest share ever of the European budget
• Biodiversity protection and gender equality