Southern India has Highest Number of Women Monitoring Credit Health
The number of women seeking credit in India has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of (CAGR) of 22 per cent since 2019, with 60 per cent of borrowers coming from semi-urban and rural areas said a report released on Monday.
Mumbai: The number of women seeking credit in India has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of (CAGR) of 22 per cent since 2019, with 60 per cent of borrowers coming from semi-urban and rural areas said a report released on Monday.
The report titled 'From Borrowers to Builders: Women's Role in India's Financial Growth Story', published by TransUnion CIBIL, Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog and MicroSave Consulting (MSC) jointly showed that bulk of their loan was for meeting consumption demand and comparatively less for businesses.
In 2024, the number of new loan accounts opened by women for business purposes (business loans, commercial vehicle and commercial equipment loans, loans against property) saw a growth of approximately 37 lakh, with disbursement totaling Rs 1.9 lakh crore, compared to approximately 8 lakh new loan accounts for business purposes and total disbursement of Rs 0.7 lakh crore in 2019. While the number of loan accounts has increased by over four times since 2019, these loans constituted only 3 per cent of overall loans availed by women borrowers in 2024. Consumption loans remain the most preferred credit product among women borrowers.
The study found that 27 million women borrowers in India were actively monitoring their credit information report in December 2024, which is 42 per cent higher than the approximately 19 million women who were doing so in December 2023 indicating that women borrowers are increasingly recognizing the importance of credit health as a cornerstone of financial empowerment.
In CY 2024, the top five states for self-monitoring women were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. These states were home to 49 per cent of all self-monitoring women across all states. The southern region had the highest number of self-monitoring women, with 10.2 million women. This region also experienced a growth of 46 per cent in self-monitoring women from December 2023 to December 2024.
Insights from the report indicate that more women borrowers from non-metro regions are active in self-monitoring their credit, compared to women borrowers from metro areas. The number of self-monitoring women from metro areas has grown by 30 per cent YoY, while those in non-metro areas have grown by 48 per cent during the same period.
Anna Roy, Principal Economic Advisor, NITI Aayog and Mission Director WEP, said, “Encouraging women entrepreneurship is one way of ensuring employment opportunities for women entering the workforce in India. It can also work as a viable strategy for accelerating equitable economic growth of our economy. Promoting women’s entrepreneurship could create employment opportunities for 150 to 170 million people while driving women’s participation in the labor force.”
The report highlights that women's share of the total self-monitoring base increased to 19.43 per cent in December 2024, up from 17.89 per cent in 2023.