Judy Hsu, CEO, Standard Chartered—Consumer, Private and Business Banking (CPBB), has said that women have a central role to play in driving commerce and prosperity in Nepal.

In a video address to the NewBiz Business Women Summit and Awards 2022 organized by New Business Age Pvt Ltd, the publishers of New Business Age monthly magazine and Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily, she shared initiatives of Standard Chartered in Nepal to support women entrepreneurship as part of its efforts to make a positive and lasting impact in the markets where it operate.

According to Hsu, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd is offering subsidized women entrepreneurship loans, which have seen a robust growth in the number of accounts opened over the last two years. She said that to promote employability for young women, Standard Chartered is embarking on a project with Plan International to equip young women with necessary skills and knowledge to be employed or self-employed.

“To equip young girls with confidence and skills to be economic leaders in their families and communities, we have been running our flagship ‘Sports to Development’ programme in Nepal since 2020. We aim to engage 1,000 young girls in financial education and life-skill training,” she said. She said that Standard Chartered is also committed to promote gender equality at work and support women to take senior roles. “In fact, 40% of the board of directors of Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd are female and the board is chaired by Zarin Daruwala, who is our cluster CEO of Standard Chartered’s India and South Asia markets,” she said.