Half of businesses unregistered, one third owned by women

Almost half of the businesses in the country are operated without being registered, whereas one third of them are owned by the women, according to the first National Economic Census.
According to the final report of the National Economic Census – launched by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) today in the capital – some 49.9 per cent (460,422) of the total 923,356 establishments are unregistered, whereas some 50.1 per cent (462,605) are registered and status of some 0.04 per cent (329) registration is unknown. “Likewise, some 29.8 per cent (247,880 enterprises) of the enterprises are owned by women as of April 14, 2018.”
According to director general at the CBS Suman Raj Aryal, the highest number of enterprises owned by women is related to wholesale and retail and the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles category. “Accommodation and food service activities come second and manufacturing enterprises come third in terms of women's ownership.”
The number of person engaged in the total 923,356 establishments are 3,228,457, where some 2,012,237 (62.3 per cent) are male and 1,216,220 (37.7 per cent) are female.
Launching the final result of the first-ever National Economic Census 2018, vice chair of National Planning Commission (NPC) Prof Dr Puspa Raj Kadel, on the occasion, said that the Economic Census gives a true reflection of the Nepali economy where the distribution of establishments is uneven across the country with high concentration of establishments in Province 3 and very low in Karnali. “The government should utilise these data for future planning process to meet the national goals,” he added.
Ambassador of Japan to Nepal Masamichi Saigo, on the occasion, stressed on the utilisation of data for policy planning so that the trade deficit can be reduced and foreign direct investment can be increased as Nepal has high potential on human resource and hydropower.
JICA has been assisting the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) to conduct the first-ever National Economic Census 2018 under the ‘Project on Capacity Development for the implementation of Economic Census 2018’ since March 2016 until March 2021. Under the project, JICA gave technical knowledge and supported equipment to make the Economic Census meeting the international standard and the quality of data. “The project will further support CBS to produce successive analytical reports in future,” said JICA chief representative Yumiko Asakuma stressing on the easy availability of data and its utilisation by government agencies, researchers and private sector.