Financing migrant entrepreneurs can be attractive and profitable. Provided the right financing is offered. This requires a clear understanding of this new client group, with extremely diverse assets base, capabilities, and financing needs. Understanding this will allow preparing the right risk profile of this new client group.
We therefore invite you to attend the upcoming YMCB Webinar on “Better access to Finance for Migrant and Refugee Entrepreneurs” taking place on Thursday, the 25th of February from 16:00 to 17:00 CET. The webinar will be held in English.
Who? Staff of financial institutions reaching out to migrant and/or refugee entrepreneurs (microfinance organisations, banks, special funds, projects and initiatives dealing with financing migrant enterprises, etc.), trainers and coaches, or anybody interested in this topic.
We will present the guide on “Financial Education for better access to Finance for Migrant and Refugee Entrepreneurs”, prepared by our partners from The Hague University of Applied Sciences.
This webinar will help you to understand:
The context refugee and migrant entrepreneurs operate and live in;
The barriers they face while seeking financing and the cost-effective way to help them overcome these barriers;
The various options for the migrant entrepreneur to choose from: micro , small enterprise or (hybrid) self-employment;
The financing needs during in different stages of the businesses set up;
The services financial institutions can offer.
Moreover, four special training modules for staff of financial institutions will be introduced, each module with a special focus on:
Knowing the migrant entrepreneur;
Guiding the client towards effective financing;
Assisting in making use of financing;
What to do when things go wrong.
Your insights and experiences will be valuable inputs for discussion during this interactive session.
* After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to the webinar and information on how to join. You can also add a webinar to your calendar as a reminder to join the session at the specified time and date.
ABOUT THE GUIDE
- The guide contains a series of training and financial education modules for (young) refugee or migrant entrepreneurs on understanding how to access financing making more effective use of financing;
- This guide can be used by trainers and coaches and staff of financial institutions to develop such financial education programs, information packages or orientation programs for migrant or refugee entrepreneurs;
- And to train and guide coaches, trainers, and staff of financial institutions, it contains a set of modules to be used in training of trainers, mentors, coaches, and staff of financial intermediaries.
SPEAKERS
Julie-Marthe Lehmann
Researcher at THUAS
PhD Candidate VU University Amsterdam
Julie focuses on research projects related to informal lending, savings and insurance mechanisms, (migrant) entrepreneurship and their linkages to financial inclusion. She is also a co-founder of foundation Cash2Grow.nl, promoting the implementation of Savings Groups in the Netherlands.
Albert C. Coumans
Part-time lecturer Business Administration, THUAS
(Interim) Business Controller and Program manager
Being a mentor for a Microfinance NGO in the Netherlands, Albert already had experienced the great ‘fortune’ we can offer by lending to start-ups and scale-ups who normally cannot find their way to the existing financial institutions. “The opportunity to write a guide which can actually help upcoming entrepreneurs to get more easily access to finance, fitted like a glove.”
Ewa Bankowska
Responsible Finance Expert
Microfinance Centre (MFC)
Ewa is the program manager for the SPM, managing action research projects on social performance innovation and customer protection. She works with a wide range of stakeholders on developing and pilot testing new tools and solutions, setting standards and documenting the experience of practitioners in attempts in delivering on microfinance promise in the CEE and NIS regions and beyond.
