YEREVAN, December 4, /ARKA /. The involvement of women in business is an upward trend of the world economy as more and more companies tend to have at least one woman as a top manager. According to a recent Grant Thornton report, almost a third of leadership positions in Armenia -32%-are held by women.

To support women's entrepreneurship in Armenia Unibank together with the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) is implementing the Women in Business program, designed to provide female business owners or managers with up to half a million US dollar loans at 10.5% interest rate. The loan repayment term is up to 60 months.

Loans are granted to businesswomen engaged in the production, trade, medicine, tourism (including hotel and restaurant business), services and other sectors.

According to preliminary estimates, the Women in Business program is expected to benefit more than 100 business women, who will receive funds for development and expansion of their businesses.
Individual entrepreneur Kristine Shahbazyan has already taken advantage of this program.

“We received a loan from Unibank on favorable terms, which means that we can now materialize all our development plans, drawn up long time ago. What we lacked was "live" money. Now we will expand our business, modernize and bring it to a new level. I am in charge of a small business now, but I am sure that thanks to the Unibank’s loan we will move to a new stage of development in the next five years.’

“The objective of this program is to provide women entrepreneurs with access to financing that will give a new impetus to the development of their businesses,” explained David Petrosyan, Unibank Sales and Corporate Business Director.

Loans are issued for specific business goals: replenishment of working capital, investments, refinancing of loans, received earlier from other banks and credit organizations.

In 2018 October Unibank and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) signed an agreement for the implementation of the Women in Business program. Within the framework of the program, credit funds amounting to $10 million will be allocated to women entrepreneurs. The cooperation between the banks will provide an opportunity to support the development of SMEs and promote the creation of new jobs in Armenia.

Unibank was established in 2001. In 2002, it introduced Unistream system. The key shareholder of the bank is UNIHOLDING GG LIMITED. In 2015, the bank was reorganized into an open joint stock company. -0