Our Partners
TURKEY
The Republic of Turkey is the world’s 17th most populous nation, with a total of 76.8 million people. Poverty and unemployment remain significant challenges for Turkey. The UNDP estimates that 36% of the population is economically vulnerable and that 9.0% lived below US$ 2/day (2006 data), with the Eastern and South-eastern regions less prosperous than the West. While the 2008 unemployment rate was estimated at 10.7%, the financial crisis has pushed unemployment as high as 15% in 2009, with youth unemployment increasing to 25%. Human Development Index gives the country a rank of 79th out of 182 countries in 2009.
Despite strong potential demand - the microfinance market potential has been estimated around 5 million and the penetration rate at 19% - the microfinance environment is both challenging and underdeveloped.
Grameen-Jameel is a partner with the following microfinance institutions:
Maya Enterprise for Microfinance (MAYA)
Turkish Grameen Microcredit Program (TGMP)
Maya Enterprise for Microfinance (Maya): Maya Enterprise for Microfinance (“Maya”) was established as a NGO in June 2002 as one of the two economic enterprises of KEDV (Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work), which focuses on early childhood education, development, economic empowerment, and disaster preparedness. Maya operates under the Law Governing the Activities of Foundations, which enables it to lend on a not-for-profit basis. Maya was the first established NGO in Turkey to offer Microcredit to low income women.
Today, Maya is based in Istanbul, with additional branches in Izmit and Adapazari. Through September 2010, Maya had 1,751 active clients and a gross loan portfolio of US $0.8 M.
Maya became a Grameen-Jameel partner in March 2010. It has received an initial grant to support portfolio growth, and technical assistance to improve its processes and build its capacity.
For further information on Maya, please refer to their website: www.kedv.org.tr/index.php?page=maya
Turkish Grameen Microcredit Programme (TGMP): TGMP was founded in July 2003 by the Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction (TISVA, as its Turkish acronym is known) as a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) in partnership with Grameen Trust.
Based in Ankara, its vision is to eliminate poverty in Turkey, its mission is to increase income-generating activities among the poor, especially women, and its strategic objective is to demonstrate that microcredit can play an important role in helping to overcome financial hardship in rural and urban areas of Turkey. . TGMP is the second established NGO in Turkey to practice microfinance, yet it is the largest in terms of number of customers, portfolio size and number of branches.
As of September 2010, TGMP has 39,076 clients in 67 branches in 30 governorates disbursed throughout Turkey, with concentration in the higher-poverty regions of the south and east. TGMP plans to reach 183,000 clients by 2014 and to open branches every city governorate in Turkey.
TGMP became a Grameen-Jameel partner in March 2010. It has received an initial grant to support the portfolio growth and received more recently a direct loan of US $2 million local currency financing to further support portfolio growth. Grameen-Jameel has also provided technical assistance to help TGMP build its capacity.
For further information on TGMP, please refer to their website: www.tgmp.net/eng/index.html