The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), launched in 2017, is designed to support women entrepreneurs to access financing, skills, and opportunities in developing countries. With funding from 14 governments, We-Fi works with six multilateral development banks as implementing partners: ADB, the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.
We-Fi has been an important catalytic source of innovative financing, enabling ADB to push for more ambitious programming for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. ADB has been successful in two rounds of funding, with grants dedicated to Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, and the Pacific. ADB has already overachieved its targets for Sri Lanka, with over 600 women entrepreneurs accessing finance by mid-2022. In Viet Nam, new blended finance transactions have provided vital support to women entrepreneurs in the pandemic context. The Women Finance Exchange, a new innovative ADB platform aiming to provide digital solutions to financial institutions and women clients, was launched through the support of We-Fi in 2021.
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ADB, TPB Sign $25 Million Loan to Finance Women-Led SMEs in Viet Nam
ADB signed a $25 million loan with Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPB) to expand access to finance of women-owned and -led small and medium-sized enterprises in Viet Nam. The project is also cofinanced by DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH for $25 million.
Stories
Women in Sri Lanka now find it easier to borrow capital from banks under ADB’s Sri Lanka: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Line of Credit Project that is supported by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative grant and the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific (formerly Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction).
Women’s ownership of formal small and medium-sized enterprises is low in Sri Lanka. ADB and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative have been supporting the Government of Sri Lanka in promoting women’s entrepreneurship through the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Line of Credit project.
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