Akbank has increased the financing support to women owned SMEs to USD 100 million with the funding provided by EBRD!
Akbank provided $50 million in financing to women-owned businesses in a short period of 4 months with the funding provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) at the end of 2021 within the scope of the Financing and Advisory Support to Women's Businesses in Turkey program. The Bank, which again provided a syndicated loan of $50 million under the same program and for the same purpose, continues to support women SMEs with favorable interest rates and free additional services provided to customers using the loan.
Akbank secured a syndicated loan of $50 million as part of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's Financing and Advisory Support to Women's Businesses in Turkey program, which was launched to narrow the financing gap for women-led businesses. The loan is a continuation of the EBRD's TurWiB II initiative with Akbank and aims to build on the success of the loan provided to the bank in 2021 under the Financing and Advisory Support to Women's Businesses in Turkey.
In January 2022, within the scope of the "Women SME Package", Akbank SME Banking Executive Vice President Bülent Oğuz stated that they offered installment commercial loans at affordable interest rates to SMEs with women founders or managers who have difficulty in creating collateral with the support of $50 million EBRD and 80% KGF guarantee and that the program was a great success and shared the following information about the new funding:
"As Akbank, I am very happy and proud to announce the second tranche of our "Women SME Package", which is in high demand from our customers. We reinforce the value we create with this loan, which we extend with two important partners such as EBRD and KGF at competitive interest rates compared to the market, by offering mentoring and consultancy services that our customers need, free of charge. Our goal is to facilitate access to finance for entrepreneurial women with high growth potential in a grassroots manner and to ensure that they can benefit from one-to-one mentoring free of charge. The feedback from our customers after the first tranche and the results of the impact analysis to date show us that we are on the right track."
Arthur Poghosyan, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Turkey Deputy Chairman for Financial Institutions, stated that the EBRD is committed to supporting an inclusive Turkish economy and said, "Akbank is an important partner for us in this direction. We are proud to expand financial access for women-led businesses and to have provided much-needed medium-term funding for this segment with a trusted partner like Akbank."