Garanti Bank and Garanti Leasing, part of Garanti Romania, have signed two lending agreements with IFC, a member of World Bank Group, amounting to EUR 32 million, with the purpose of financing Romanian small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), a press release informs.
“Entrepreneurship is an important engine that has boosted the development of the economy in Romania. We are active supporters of this sector in general, and of women entrepreneurs in particular, and we will continue to focus on being a solid trustworthy partner for our clients”, stated Ufuk Tandogan, CEO Garanti Group.
Out of the total amount, EUR 16 million will be dedicated for lending to companies owned or managed by women.
“Strengthening women’s participation in the Romanian private sector harnesses untapped potential for employment and economic growth”, said Thomas Lubeck, IFC Regional Manager for Central and Southeast Europe.
Garanti Group Romania has an ongoing strategy of supporting the local economy and companies having women as shareholders or in top management structures. Currently, statistics show that in Romania there are over 481,000 companies with women as associates / shareholders and approximately 165,000 Authorized Individual Companies / Individual Enterprises / Family Enterprises with women as owners / members .
Of the EUR 32 million, EUR 25 million were granted to Garanti Bank and EUR 7 million to Garanti Leasing. These are the fifth and, respectively, sixth agreement signed by IFC with Garanti Group, targeting SMEs. Previously, over the past six years, IFC granted a total volume of EUR 70 million to Garanti Group, with the purpose of financing SMEs. Garanti Bank has partenered with IFC in 2012 (EUR 22.5 million) and 2014 (EUR 35 million), while Garanti Leasing in 2014 (EUR 7 million) and 2017 (EUR 5.5 million).