BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 16. The World Bank Board on Thursday approved the Access to Finance for Jobs and Growth Project in Türkiye, a program aimed at expanding access to finance for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and supporting job creation, with a particular focus on women and youth, Trend reports via the World Bank.
Implemented in partnership with Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O. (VakıfBank), the project will use a EUR 750 million (US$867.8 million) IBRD guarantee under the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform to mobilize up to EUR 1.5 billion in 10-year commercial financing from international lenders.
The guarantee will provide sub-loans to roughly 30,000 MSMEs, including 15,000 women-led and 1,000 youth-led firms, through three financing windows supporting women and youth entrepreneurship, sectoral access to finance, and resilience in underdeveloped and disaster-affected regions. Performance-based incentives will reward firms that hire and retain employees—especially women and youth—and adopt digital financial services to expand financial access. The project is expected to create, directly and indirectly, up to 800,000 new or better-quality jobs.
The Türkiye project is part of the Access to Finance for Jobs and Growth (FINGROW) Program, a $4 billion World Bank Group regional initiative to improve financial access for businesses across Europe and Central Asia, foster private sector growth, and create 3.5 million jobs. Türkiye and Uzbekistan are the first countries in the region to benefit from the program.