Trainers of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development project under the MEKR deliver financial literacy foundations and business planning training to Bank’s clients

The trainers of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development project were holding a series of awareness-raising workshops for the clients of Bai-Tushum Bank throughout September and the first half of October. The trainings covered all the central cities of our republic: Bishkek, Cholpon-Ata, Naryn, Talas, Osh, Batken and Jalal-Abad. 

150 women entrepreneurs attended the interactive one-day course devoted to financial literacy foundations and business planning. As part of the training, the participants got acquainted with the basics of balance sheet preparation, financial planning, discussed the importance of having a “safety cushion” and the matters pertaining to the search of financing sources. During the trainings, the participants were given recommendations on establishing and running a business, discussed the case studies on how to start a business with minimum investments or how to mobilize investments.

“This is not the first experience for us in cooperating with the ADB’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development project designed to provide training to our female clients. This has been a good tradition already and we are grateful for this opportunity to our partner. Such trainings are very important for women entrepreneurs as the sessions help them to look at their business from a new perspective, establish financial accounting, teach to rationally approach their expenses and find investments if necessary,” says Gulnara Shamshieva, General Manager of Bai-Tushum Bank.

Bai-Tushum Bank is a partner financial organization in the implementation of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development project by the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic. Using the project funds, the bank disbursed loans to women entrepreneurs in rural areas for the total of more than KGS 37 million. During the project implementation, the bank officers gained the skills of using gender-oriented tools in lending, the project expert developed recommendations for the bank regarding the introduction of mobile banking and poverty assessment methodology.