Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- A business leadership marathon is starting in Uzbekistan and Central Asia to support women entrepreneurs in the region. The marathon is being implemented by Visa, the world leader in digital payments, together with the Onlinebank by Halyk brand, a mobile business application for the largest bank in Kazakhstan. 

The purpose of the marathon is to support women who are planning to start their own business or are already engaged in the development of an existing business. The technical partner of the marathon is the Tech Hub of the Astana International Financial Center. Also in Uzbekistan, the program was supported by the Representative Office of the American Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan.

The share of women in the structure of owners of micro-, small and medium-sized businesses in Uzbekistan is growing from year to year. About 40% of the country’s individual entrepreneurs, according to the Senate Committee on Women and Gender Equality of Uzbekistan, are women. However, when starting a business, entrepreneurs often face various challenges.

To help entrepreneurs overcome existing barriers and challenges, Visa and Halyk Bank, with the Onlinebank by Halyk brand, are launching an educational marathon as part of the She’s Next global initiative. Empowered by Visa. The first phase of the initiative took place in 2021 and attracted more than 2,500 entrepreneurs from five countries in the region.

The marathon will be held under the slogan "Successful business is a balance!". Modern women today have time to pay attention not only to the tasks of developing their own business, but also to take care of their families, children and parents. Therefore, it is so important when building a business not to forget about the balance of business and personal life. During the marathon, participants will be able to attend 8 educational lectures on effective business management and the formation of a harmonious everyday life - the introduction of sports into the schedule, proper nutrition and more. The lecturers of the marathon will be recognized leaders from the business industry and other areas. This year, participants will also have the opportunity to win grants to develop their own businesses.

“Visa supports and launches numerous initiatives to help micro, small and medium enterprises, including those run by women, grow and move online. We are implementing the Business Leadership Marathon with our partner Halyk Bank, and we expect that we will be able to unite even more women in the region who are aimed at developing in business. Our goal is to provide access to new knowledge for the business and personal development of entrepreneurs in the region, and business development grants will help marathon winners take the next important step in developing their business,” says Kristina Dorosh, Vice President, Regional Manager of Visa in Central Asia and Azerbaijan.

“Halyk Bank has been supporting women entrepreneurs for many years, including through its own preferential financing programs. Today we see that in a number of industries, such as food processing, retail, education and medicine, the number of female entrepreneurs is comparable to or even exceeds the number of male entrepreneurs, and this trend is gaining momentum. At the moment, the share of the loan portfolio of women-individual entrepreneurs in our bank is 55%. We are confident that the joint project with our strategic partner Visa is a good stimulus for further growth of entrepreneurial activity among women and are pleased to support such a large-scale initiative that will cover all markets in Central Asia,” commented Umut Shayakhmetova, Chairman of the Board of Halyk Bank, commenting on the launch of the marathon.

“We are excited to partner with Visa and Halyk Bank as the support for women entrepreneurs highlights their integral role in business development. We hope that the program will help women realize their potential, as well as provide resources and inspiration to start their own business or continue to further develop their business,” said Kairat Kaliyev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tech Hub of the Astana International Financial Center.

On 15 September 2022, the acceptance of applications for participation in the marathon began. To participate, you must register on the program website http://shesnext.aifc.kz/, after which you will receive confirmation and undergo training, including mandatory testing using a chatbot with a rating system. Participation in the marathon is available to adult women who are interested in or doing business from all over the countries of Central Asia on a free basis.

In addition to insights from business and other experts, participants can compete for business development grants. To qualify for the marathon final and become a candidate for a grant, participants need to answer all the tasks in the chatbot. The list of tasks also includes the preparation of a mini-essay about your own business. Points for tests in the chatbot will be awarded automatically for correct answers, while the essay will be judged by the jury of the marathon. The 15 finalists with the highest scores will be shortlisted for the marathon.

Further, among the finalists, three winners will be selected by open voting, who will receive 5,000,000, 3,000,000 and 1,000,000 tenge for the development of their business for the first, second and third places, respectively.

Also, as part of the launch of the Business Leadership marathon, Halyk Bank announced the continuation of its own program to support women’s entrepreneurship and announced the allocation of 1 billion tenge from its own funds for concessional financing of entrepreneurs. This amount will already be the 6th billion tenge allocated by the bank as part of its program, where entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to receive up to 20,000,000 tenge per borrower at 5%. It should be noted that when issuing a preferential loan from the bank, priority will be given to the participants of the educational marathon.

Within the framework of concessional financing from Halyk Bank, three marathon winners are given the opportunity to increase the volume of loans for business development up to 50,000,000, 40,000,000 and 30,000,000 tenge, for the first, second and third places, respectively*.

All other participants of the marathon will be given the opportunity of a preferential bank loan up to 20,000,000 tenge.

Additionally, within the framework of the partnership, all participants of the educational marathon will open accounts with Halyk Bank free of charge.

Participants can receive a loan not only from Kazakhstan, but also from Central Asian countries, including in subsidiaries of Halyk Bank in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Participation in the marathon does not oblige to take a loan from a bank, this opportunity is realized by the participants at their own request.

Approval of the application and confirmation of concessional financing by the Bank is considered on an individual basis. If the borrower’s application does not comply with the Bank’s internal requirements for issuing a loan, the Bank reserves the right not to approve concessional financing.