Washington, December 15, 2025 - The World Bank Board has today approved the Türkiye Access to Finance for Jobs and Growth Project in Türkiye, an initiative designed to expand access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and support job creation across Türkiye with a strong focus on women and youth.
The project, implemented in partnership with Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O. (VakıfBank), will leverage a EUR 750 million (US$867.8 million equivalent) IBRD guarantee under the WBG Guarantee Platform, to mobilize up to EUR 1.5 billion, 10-year financing facility in commercial financing from international lenders.
MSMEs and entrepreneurs-especially women and youth-face significant challenges in Türkiye's financial system, including limited access to credit, digital services, and pathways into formal labor force participation. In turn, this weakens firm productivity, restricts investment, and slows job creation. By targeting women and youth, the project aims to expand access to finance for all viable MSMEs, and use incentives to strengthen employment, competitiveness, and growth across the economy.
"FINGROW will help Türkiye's entrepreneurs access the financing they need to grow, innovate, and create jobs-particularly for women and young people who remain among the most credit-constrained," said Humberto Lopez, World Bank Country Director for Türkiye. "The project also establishes a platform to harmonize market standards across banks, enhancing digitalization and supporting a more resilient financial ecosystem."
The guarantee will provide sub-loans to approximately 30,000 MSMEs-including 15,000 women-led and 1,000 youth-led firms-through three financing windows that support women and youth entrepreneurship, sectoral access to finance, and resilience in underdeveloped and disaster-affected regions. Performance-based incentives will reward firms for hiring and retaining employment, especially women and youth, adopting digital financial services to increase access to finance. The project is expected to help create-directly and indirectly-up to 800,000 new or better-quality jobs.
"Beyond financing, this project aims to be a demonstration platform that brings financial sector actors to harmonize definitions, verification practices, and reporting standards for MSMEs, enabling other banks to replicate and scale financial services for MSMEs, especially women-led enterprises," said Etkin Özen, World Bank Task Team Leader. "This is key to achieving system-wide impact."
This project is part of the Access to Finance for Jobs and Growth (FINGROW) Program, a $4 billion regional initiative of the World Bank Group aimed at improving access to financial services and instruments for businesses across the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region, fostering private sector growth and creating 3.5 million jobs. Uzbekistan ($105 million) and Türkiye (around $870 million) are the first ECA countries to benefit from FINGROW program support.
This project preparation benefited from technical assistance and grants from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)'s Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries, supported by the Government of Japan.
