UNCDF launches e-learning modules for small and micro-businesses

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), in collaboration with its partners, have recently launched basic e-learning modules to improve the digital and financial literacy of small and micro-businesses (SMBs) entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.

The modules have been launched as part of UNCDF's "Build Back Better – Enhancing Recovery and Resilience of Small and Micro-Businesses" project, it said in a press statement on Wednesday.

The project aims to improve the digital and financial literacy of entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, particularly women, empowering these entrepreneurs to confidently adopt and leverage new digital services that improve their competitiveness and performance.

In the initial roll-out of the e-learning modules, this project will help 5,000 women-led and owned small and micro-businesses acquire the necessary digital and financial capabilities to access and use the tools they need to grow their business in the digital age. This project will give access to digital and financial literacy e-learning modules to 200,000 SMBs over two years.

In the initial phase of the Build Back project, UNCDF and Visa partnered with ShopUp and ekShop, two prominent SMBs integrators in the country.

The UN fund and Visa also commissioned a "Rapid Needs Assessment" to evaluate the existing level of financial and digital literacy of SMBs previously launched at an online event on 24 May 2021 with participants from across leading public and private sector organisations globally and in South Asia.

Over 50% of SMBs in the study had a poor understanding of how digital and financial services could help their businesses, and financial literacy gaps were even more pronounced for women entrepreneurs, UNCDF said in the press statement.

In conjunction with the rollout of these modules, UNCDF will provide training support to assist SMBs with the on-boarding process, with a focus on closing gender gaps in digital and financial literacy.