World Bank launches loan program for women entrepreneurs in developing countries

Image: Ivanka Trump in the middle

The World Bank said initial funding of $325 million was coming from donors including Germany, the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and would be matched by hundreds of millions of dollars in additional private capital.

“This is going to be what we hope will be a multi-billion dollar fund to support women entrepreneurs,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said at a launch attended by six of the 20 world leaders meeting at the G-20 summit in Hamburg and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

“This is not a cute little project. This is going to be a major driver of economic growth in the future ... and it’s going to drive gender equality at the same time,” he said.

The program, which aims to start awarding loans before year end, will work with governments “to improve laws and regulations that are stifling women entrepreneurs” and push banks to free up funds for female-owned businesses.

It will also create an online mentoring tool to match women business owners in developing countries with advisers such as Ivanka Trump, Kim said.

Women business owners at the event said it was important to tackle legal barriers that prevent women from owning property and limit their access to funds.

“The empowerment of women is absolutely essential,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told participants, decrying what he called regression in women’s rights even in industrialized countries.

Merkel said she was impressed how quickly the bank had realized the project, which was first initiated five months ago.

“If everything went as quickly at the World Bank … then we would be much more efficient,” she said. President Trump said the US would contribute $50 million to the fund.

He said the fund would help eliminate barriers for women to launch businesses, help transform “millions and millions of lives,” and “provide new hope to these women from countless communities all across the world.”

“The critical investments we’re announcing today will help advance the economic empowerment of women around the world,” he said.