One third of the businesses that are clients of Oschadbank are led by women, — Roza Tapanova

The share of women entrepreneurs among the total number of business owners serviced by Oschadbank is constantly growing: it has now reached 33%, which equals about 80 thousand in the micro, small and medium-sized business segment. Roza Tapanova, a member of Oschadbank's Supervisory Board, said this at the Ukrainian Women's Congress held recently in Kyiv. In her opinion, this growth is due to both the increasing role of women in the Ukrainian economy due to the full-scale war and the special attention the bank pays to the development of women's entrepreneurship.

“We can state that there are more women in business areas that were traditionally considered male dominated. For example, more than 30% of business owners in the energy, telecommunications, and processing sectors are women, and even among entrepreneurs in agriculture, defense, and transportation services, one fifth of the founders are women. Oschad is trying to be more than just a bank, to be a partner, so it helps to teach financial literacy, helps women not to be afraid of entrepreneurship and take their economic future into their own hands,” said Roza Tapanova.

Among the programs that help women entrepreneurs develop their businesses, the Oschad Supervisory Board member mentioned state aid programs (primarily Affordable Loans 5-7-9%), government and international grants, regional business support programs in cooperation with regional military administrations, Oschad's special banking product for female and male veterans, Business 4.5.0, and training programs provided by the bank as part of its technical assistance programs. She also emphasized the role of women's entrepreneurship in the development of local communities.

Roza Tapanova also emphasized the gender-neutral policy implemented at Oschadbank. In particular, it ensures equality in employment and remuneration for men and women. One of the results of this policy is the fact that there are twice as many women as men in the middle management of Oschad's central office and regional offices. Women's representation in the bank's governing bodies exceeds 30%.