In a disadvantaged neighbourhood with few amenities, Annu’s business enables local residents, especially women, to access essential banking services.
Annu, 24, is a young business owner who runs her own customer service point (CSP), a digital outreach hub that widens access to everyday financial services.
Low-income families in India, especially women, are often locked out of formal banking services. They may be unable to travel to city-centre banks or access digital devices, lack the literacy skills to manage the paperwork, or the income
guarantees to secure loans.
Annu’s CSP brings these services to the heart of the community, providing customers, especially women, with the means to make deposits, pay bills, access savings and seek loans. Already financially independent herself, Annu is keen to help other women pursue that path. ‘Financial freedom helped me broaden my thoughts and gave me a lot of confidence,’ she explains, ‘My voice in my family started mattering.’
A journey to independence
Annu grew up with her grandmother in a family with limited resources, juggling schoolwork and domestic responsibilities from an early age. Like most girls in her community, she was expected to focus on domestic work and marriage rather than pursue a career. But Annu was keen to keep studying and to earn an independent income.
At Project Lehar, Annu joined sewing and entrepreneurship classes, covering basic business, finance and self-employment skills. These equipped her to start earning, working from home stitching clothes. Annu used her earnings to fund her studies, finishing school and paying her own way through university. ‘I always wanted to stand on my own two feet. Learning stitching helped me find
the way,’ she explains.
Skills for success
Project Lehar, run by the Aga Khan Foundation with support from King’s Trust International, provides training and support for girls and young women from low income backgrounds in northern India. For Annu, this included a six-month course in computer applications, and the chance to complete Lehar’s ‘community challenge’ – a real-life community project – which provided a major confidence boost.
‘The community challenge exercise gave me a lot of confidence as I was able to speak in front of so many people and influence their thoughts,’ Annu recalls.
‘That is a feeling that empowers you a lot.’
Annu’s skills and qualifications saw her become the first member of her family to secure a formal job, as a banking customer service clerk. Annu’s family were unsure about her ability to pursue a career, especially in a sector dominated by men, but she persevered – soon transitioning from employee to entrepreneur.
Confidence and credit
When the chance arose to take over a local customer service point, Annu was keen to seize the opportunity, but did not have enough savings. Confident that she could make a success of the venture, Annu was prepared to back herself financially. She successfully applied for a loan and took the business over.
Now the owner of one of the few female-run CSPs in her area, Annu has already repaid her loan in full and hired her first employee, another young woman from her village. Her CSP has already enabled at least 50 illiterate women from the neighbourhood to open bank accounts, and take vital steps towards financial independence and security. Annu has recently also started offering loan
services, encouraging local entrepreneurship and investment.
Annu’s business not only supports her own family and funds her siblings’ education, it also serves, inspires and empowers her community.