Prime Highlight:
- Garanti BBVA has celebrated 20 years of supporting women entrepreneurs, transforming a small pilot project into a nationwide model combining finance, education, and business growth tools.
- The programme addresses Türkiye’s gender gap in the workforce and promotes inclusive finance as part of the bank’s sustainable strategy.
Key Facts:
- Over the past five years, the bank provided more than €5 billion in funding to women-led businesses, including €2.5 billion in 2025 alone.
- Initiatives include the Women Entrepreneurs Academy, training 6,000 women across 30 cities, and the Women in Trade digital platform with 2,000 registered users.
Background:
Garanti BBVA has completed 20 years of supporting women entrepreneurs in Türkiye, turning a small pilot project into a nationwide model that combines finance, education and business growth tools.
Launched in 2005, the programme was designed to serve a largely ignored business segment. While women make up nearly half of Türkiye’s population, their participation in the labour force remains just 34.3%, compared with the OECD average of 63%. The bank said this gap represented a missed economic opportunity and decided to act.
Over the past five years, Garanti BBVA has channelled more than €5 billion in funding to women-led businesses. Of this, €2.5 billion was disbursed in 2025 alone. The bank provides tailored loans, better terms, and gender-neutral credit policies to improve access to capital.
The programme defines women entrepreneurs as those holding over 50% ownership in a business, including self-employed professionals. This clear definition lets the bank track data, measure results and manage this group like any other main business line.
Beyond finance, the support model rests on four pillars. These include training, encouragement, and market access. The Women Entrepreneurs Academy, run in partnership with Boğaziçi University, has trained 6,000 women in 30 cities through 50 courses since 2012. The Women Entrepreneurs Award has received more than 48,000 applications since 2007.
The bank also launched the “Women in Trade” digital platform, which helps women reach new markets. The platform now has 2,000 registered users.
Garanti BBVA said its approach has drawn recognition from global bodies such as the IFC, EBRD, and the United Nations. More importantly, it has become part of the bank’s culture, with branch staff actively encouraging women to join.
The bank added that gender-inclusive finance now forms a key pillar of its sustainable finance strategy, supporting long-term growth and resilience in Türkiye’s economy.
