DANA and Ant International, a digital payment and financial services leader headquartered in Singapore, have announced the return of the SisBerdaya program for 2024, a local initiative designed to empower women entrepreneurs in the micro and ultra-micro categories, through training, mentoring, and competitions.
The initiative aims to help women entrepreneurs develop their business management and digital skills to remain competitive in the digital economy while being able to innovate and grow their businesses.
Registration for the SisBerdaya program has been open from the 29th of July until the 21st of August 2024, targeting two categories of MSMEs, namely the ultra-micro category for businesses that have monthly income from one million to 10 million rupiah and have 0 – 3 employees, and the micro category, for businesses with monthly income from 10 million to 30 million rupiah and employees numbering 4-10 people.
The program will be implemented in several stages, starting with registration in August, by grouping participants directly into three main regions namely West Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java outside Greater Jakarta), East Indonesia (Sulawesi, Bali, NTT, NTB, Ambon, Papua), and Greater Jakarta (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi).
Olavina Harahap, Director of Communications of DANA, said: “The success of SisBerdaya 2023 has proven to have opened insights, opportunities, and access to digital finance for participants to continue developing their businesses.
“Therefore, this year’s SisBerdaya Program is even more inclusive. As the theme is ‘It’s Women Entrepreneurs’ Turn to Go Global’, we want to invite women entrepreneurs to be
able to open new perspectives, raise their optimism, and increase their competitiveness to the global level.
“In accordance with our commitment to support the development of MSMEs with the principles of inclusivity and innovation for all people without exception, this year we have also added a new category to it, namely DisBerdaya or Disabilitas Berdaya, which is specifically for MSMEs for women with disabilities.
“We are confident that the return of SisBerdaya will be able to increase the capabilities of women entrepreneurs in Indonesia inclusively, realize economic independence, and accelerate the digital economy.”
Noudhy Valdryno, Director of Public Policy and Business Development, Indonesia at Ant International, said, “With an aligned vision and mission, Ant International and DANA are committed to increasing inclusivity in the digital economy in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, especially women entrepreneurs.
“Through three aspects, from access to financing, adaptation to digital services, to professional business management capabilities, Ant International aims to reduce barriers for all business owners and empower them to digitize and achieve growth, while stimulating the local economy.
“We are optimistic that SisBerdaya can be a driver to expand opportunities for women and entrepreneurs with disabilities to grow, and be able to reach their full potential to compete on a global scale.”
The SisBerdaya initiative is also supported by the National Council for Financial Inclusion (DNKI), as an implementation of inclusive finance for the target segment of women’s groups.