GBA Newsletter: July 2008

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GBA Newsletter

Dear GBA Members,

Greetings from hot, sunny Washington!

I trust all of you are doing well and getting ready for your summer vacation, or winter for some of you!Thank you to Governing Board Member Amanda Ellis for her contribution to this month GBA Updates. We would like to hear from all of you regarding your experiences, lessons learned, best practices and upcoming events. Please do not hesitate to email Esther with this information at: mdassanou@ifc.org

GBA HAPPENINGS

Welcome to New GBA Affiliate Member: Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN)Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs Associations of Nepal (FWEAN) is a not-for-profit organization aiming at representing the collective efforts of Women Entrepreneurs in the economic progress of the nation and decision making at national and international levels. FWEAN is the central body of WEAN established in 1989 and looks at establishing subsidiary WEAN chapters in all 75 districts of Nepal representing 10% of the 245,944 Women Entrepreneurs in the country. Based in Kathmandu, FWEAN is a focal point for interaction not only with the government, but also the various national and international women’s organizations.
For more information, please visit : http://www.fwean.org.np/about.html

Congratulations to GBA Member Access Bank Nigeria on being nominated for the Sustainable Emerging Markets Bank of the year for this year’s Financial Times Award!

Next GBA Quarterly Call – July 8th, 2008 at 10:00 am, Washington DC time

The next GBA quarterly call will take place on Tuesday July 8th, 2008 at 10:00 am Washigton DC time. The session will take place via webinar to give you the opportunity to see the presentation from fellow GBA member Bank of America/MBNA as well as discuss with one another in real time. All of you should have received a message asking you to register. If you have not yet registered, please do so as soon as possible. It is the only way you will be able to access the call. If you have not received the message, please let Esther know as soon as possible. We look forward to speaking to all of you on the 8th.

IN THE NEWS

Women Rise in Rwanda’s Economic Revival
By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday May 16, 2008

(…)The march of female entrepreneurialism, playing out here and across Rwanda in industries from agribusiness to tourism, has proved to be a windfall for efforts to rebuild the nation and fight poverty. Women more than men invest profits in the family, renovate homes, improve nutrition, increase savings rates and spend on children’s education, officials here said. (…)”Rwanda’s economy has risen up from the genocide and prospered greatly on the backs of our women,” said Agnes Matilda Kalibata, minister of state in charge of agriculture. “Bringing women out of the home and fields has been essential to our rebuilding. In that process, Rwanda has changed forever. . . . We are becoming a nation that understands that there are huge financial benefits to equality.”
For more, please visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051504035.html?wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2008051504314

Think and Grow Rich
By Elinor Robin, WomenEntrepreneur.com
Tuesday March 25, 2008

Women entrepreneurs are a different breed. We are passionate about our businesses and our work. Traditional women’s groups and business groups, however, are often unable to fuel the fire and enthusiasm
that women entrepreneurs thrive on. So I was delighted when I heard about Kellie Kuecha, her organization Women That Win and the MastHERmind programs she presents.
Kuecha’s MastHERmind curriculum was inspired by the Mastermind concept first described in Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think And Grow Rich. In 1908, Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie–then the richest man in the world–to interview 500 successful people to discover and publish a formula for success that the average person could duplicate.(…)

For more please visit:
http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/column/2798.html

$4 Billion Lending Goal for Women Owned Businesses
By PNC Bank, USA

PNC Bank is aiming to lend up to $4 billion to qualifying women-owned businesses by the year 2010 as part of an ongoing five-year commitment to support the growth and expansion of this fast-growing business segment. This goal PNC Bank set after it successfully lent more than $1 billion to women-owned businesses between 2000 to 2005.  That first lending initiative resulted in thousands of women-owned businesses — those where women own 51 percent or more of the business interest or stock — receiving loans with an average amount of $60,000. The loans, issued to businesses across PNC’s retail banking region of eight states and the District of Columbia, were used for business start-ups, expansion, capital needs, or help with cash flow.(…)
For more, click here