Mehtap HALICI
Halkbank is holding the third Productive Women Competition today on its way to the Productive Women Summit organized on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021. Applications for the competition, which will evaluate women entrepreneurs who provide added value to the Turkish economy, will be accepted until December 31.
The competition will award cash prizes in the categories “Productive Entrepreneur of the Year, Technology-Based Entrepreneur, Women’s Cooperative, Zero Waste and Rising Star”. Halkbank CEO Osman Arslan said at the opening jury meeting of the Halkbank Producing Women competition that when selecting the jury members, they pay attention to the fact that they are from different industries and pointed out that the jury members working in many different fields such as education, business, industry , energy and textiles, the contestants will be evaluated from different points of view.
Osman Arslan pointed out that they are working to ensure the full and equal participation of women at all levels of economic life and said that by the end of the third year of the project, they have provided financial support of 53 billion TL to 212 thousand female entrepreneurs from various professional groups. Pointing out that this figure was 8.5 billion TL for 88 thousand entrepreneurs by the end of 2021 and 23 billion TL for around 159 thousand entrepreneurs by the end of 2022, Osman Arslan said: “As Halkbank, we continue to support our women. Our goal is to increase the number of female entrepreneurs that Halkbank has supported so far from 212,000 to 250,000 by the end of 2024.
The resource we plan to allocate for 2024 will not be less than 20 billion TL. “If it’s more than that, we’re able to cover it,” he said. Arslan stated that in 2024, he will evaluate an award of no less than 1 million TL to the women entrepreneurs who ranked first in the competition, saying, “This number means good capital for medium and small businesses. In addition, contestants who make it to the finals will not be charged for our banking services for 1 year. We will provide support not only to the awardees, but also to the finalists. “Our goal is to expose our women entrepreneurs to positive discrimination,” she said.
58 percent of entrepreneurs are women.
Osman Arslan pointed out that 45 percent of business customers have an increase in turnover due to the use of credit, he said that the annual average increase in turnover of these customers reached 66 percent and the increase in export volume reached 56 percent. While the share of women in employment in Turkey is 32 percent; Arslan stated that 58 percent of the employees of women entrepreneurs are women, she said, “If we look at the distribution of loans given to women entrepreneurs, 42 percent are in commerce, 22 percent in services and 14 percent in transport and communications. , 9 percent are in production and 7 percent are in production.” of; “We found out he was from the tourism sector,” he said.
Women keep their debts
Osman Arslan said that the support package provided to women entrepreneurs offers positive discrimination, especially in terms of collateral, at a time when access to finance is difficult, “The return on profits from the financing we provide is around 99 percent. We can say that the rate of no return is 1 percent. This shows that; Our women are really loyal to their debts and spend the funds they use from our bank directly on their own businesses. They don’t spend it on anything other than work. “If they spend it on anything other than work, there will be serious distortions in that return,” he said.
Jury members will provide advice
Osman Arslan said that Halkbank will also launch the Producer Women Academy Master Class Brand Training to strengthen the roles of women in the business world and offer them equal opportunities: “The 100 people who will be selected from among the applicants for the competition will be hosted for two days at the end of January in Istanbul. As part of the two-day program; Training will be provided on brand investment, corporate brand communication and financial literacy. “The members of the juries will also provide them with advisory support entirely voluntarily,” he said. Arslan added that Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Antalya, Izmir and Adana stand out as the provinces where the most female entrepreneurs are approached.