World Bank, UN, SIDBI launch Rs 300 crore Women’s Livelihood Bond

  1. World Bank, UN Women, and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) have collaborated to launch a new social impact bonds exclusively for women, called Women’s Livelihood Bonds (WLBs), with an initial corpus of Rs 300 crore.
  2. The proposed bond will enable individual women entrepreneurs in sectors like food processing, agriculture, services and small units to borrow around Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh at an annual interest rate of around 13-14 per cent or less.
  3. The bonds, which will have a tenure of five years, will be launched by SIDBI with the support of World Bank and UN Women.
  4. SIDBI will act as the financial intermediary and channel funds raised to women entrepreneurs through participating financial intermediaries like banks, NBFCs or microfinance institutions.
  5. The WLBs will be unsecured, unlisted bonds and offer fixed coupon rate of 3 per cent per annum to bond investors.