Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB and Visa have announced a new incentive program for women entrepreneurs. POS device support will be provided to 1,000 women entrepreneurs in order to facilitate card payment in order to increase their sales with this work, which is a continuation of the “A Purchase Makes a Big Difference” campaign, which was launched to support small businesses to continue their activities during the pandemic and to invite consumers to meet their needs from small businesses.

The campaign for European SME Week aims to make it easier for women entrepreneurs to accept card payments and thus support women's entrepreneurship in Turkey, with the aim of reaching cardholders who do not prefer to pay with cash.

In order to benefit from the campaign, women entrepreneurs will be able to apply through the Smart SME Platform, Turkey's digitalization base, until December 31, 2021, where SMEs have access to comprehensive products, services and trainings on digitalization.

1,000 women entrepreneurs who meet the criteria and purchase POS devices for the first time between the specified dates will be able to benefit from the campaign. Women entrepreneurs who are eligible for incentives in line with the criteria at akillikobi.org.tr/pos-destegi/ will be able to benefit from this support with the new year.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu noted, “While half of our population is women, women make up 1/3 of the working life. When we look at entrepreneurs, 1 in 10 entrepreneurs are women entrepreneurs. This rate was 4% in the past; we have reached 10% today. In order for our country to achieve its future goals, women need to be more integrated into the economy. The number of women entrepreneurs among entrepreneurs needs to increase. With this vision, we established TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council organized in 81 provinces in 2007 in order to increase women entrepreneurship. TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council undoubtedly has a part to play in the increase in the number of women entrepreneurs in our country.

As consumers, our tendency to pay by card has increased significantly recently due to the pandemic. As TOBB and Visa, we want to support women entrepreneurs who set out for trade and production with POS device support to accept card payments and to help them sell more.

In this way, TOBB and Visa have launched a new collaboration after the Smart SME Platform, the “A Purchase Makes a Big” campaign and Card Spending Reports. I invite all women entrepreneurs who started their businesses in 2021 to benefit from this support.”

Merve Tezel, General Manager of Visa Turkey, said, “As Visa, we provide mentorship to empower women entrepreneurs in business life under many headings so that they can grow their business. Now, within the scope of our “A Purchase Makes a Big” campaign, which we launched with TOBB to support small businesses during the pandemic, we want to support women entrepreneurs in accepting payments through cards. We invite all our women entrepreneurs to apply through the Smart SME Platform.”