G20 Flagship projects

Description of the project:

The project, financed by the EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, is being carried out by İŞKUR and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The budget of the project to be implemented in 2014-2021 is 38 million Euros. The objective of the project is to support women-led SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) in new employment areas. The target group of the project is SMEs which are owned or managed by women.
As part of the financial component of the project, the fund of 300 million Euros, allocated by the EBRD, is being made available for the use of the target SMEs as eligible loan through the national banks participating in the project. 10% of the extended loan is allocated as risk loss coverage to encourage the banks to give loans to women SMEs, and is covered by the project budget. Within the scope of the business support component, comprehensive counselling support, management skills trainings and mentoring services are provided in such fields as marketing, organization, information and communication technology, quality management, energy efficiency, and environmental management for the target group. Thus, the sustainable growth of the target SMEs in the medium- and long-term is supported.

Impact of the project:

BBy the end of 2016, 9.758 enterprises used nearly 130 million Euros of loans in Turkey. By the end of March 2017, 264 enterprises benefited from counselling projects, 80 enterprises were provided with mentorship service, and 379 enterprises were given entrepreneurship training.

Area of focus of the project:

• information and awareness-raising campaigns
• enabling women’s entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship education, financing schemes, incubators)