Oschadbank’s Credit Portfolio for Women Entrepreneurs Has More Than Quadrupled Since the Outbreak of the Full-Scale War

Since 2022, Oschadbank’s credit portfolio for women entrepreneurs has increased more than fourfold, from UAH 1.3 billion to UAH 5.2 billion. Today, women account for 34% of Oschadbank’s small and medium-sized business credit portfolio, as well as 40% of grant beneficiaries.

This was reported by Natalia Butkova-Vitvitska, Member of the Management Board of Oschadbank in charge of micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, at the side event “Rebuilding Ukraine Together: Partnerships, Capital, and Women’s Economic Leadership” as part of the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 in Poland. She spoke at the session titled “FinanceHER: Financing Women Rebuilding Ukraine. From Declarations to Results: One Year of FinanceHER.”

Panelists, including Olesia Zaluska, BLOOM Consortium Director (Mercy Corps Ukraine), and Hagen Ettner, Program Director of STEPIN2EU (GIZ / SME Resilience Coalition), discussed expanding women entrepreneurs’ access to capital and summarized the first year of the international FinanceHER coalition’s work. The discussion was moderated by Maryna Saprykina, an expert on women entrepreneurship and the founder of this initiative.

“We see that women entrepreneurs are shifting from a survival model to a growth strategy. While preserving their businesses was the primary goal at the start of the full-scale war, today an increasing number of women entrepreneurs are securing financing to scale up, purchase equipment, enter new markets, and create jobs. Demand is shifting from replenishing working capital to implementing long-term investment projects and ensuring the energy independence of their own businesses. This is also reflected in the growth of our portfolio, which has more than quadrupled since 2022. Supporting women’s entrepreneurship today is an investment in Ukraine’s economic resilience and recovery,” noted Natalia Butkova-Vitvitska.

During the discussion, the Oschadbank Management Board Member emphasized the importance of providing comprehensive support to businesses, which has been reflected in specific banking instruments.

“In addition to access to capital, today’s female entrepreneurs need a comprehensive support ecosystem. That is why Oschadbank offers the following support model: for startups – operational support and government grants when setting up a business; for experienced entrepreneurs – access to extra funding through loans; for exporters – scaling up and supporting export activity, as well as entering foreign markets. In collaboration with our international partners, the EBRD, EIB, GIZ, EFSE, and UN Women, we offer a combination of loans, grants, and training. This approach is proving effective: thanks to these tools, Ukrainian women entrepreneurs are now establishing new clothing manufacturing facilities, reopening veterinary clinics in de-occupied territories, and even launching exports of industrial products to other continents. One such example is our financing of about 50 projects under the government’s “CREATE!” program to support women in the processing sector”, noted Natalia Butkova-Vitvitska.

Discussions on new support tools were based on the results of a joint study by the Ukrainian Women’s Congress and Oschadbank, which assessed the level of financial literacy and the needs of women in business. According to a survey of 682 female entrepreneurs, 43% are planning to seek financing over the next 12 months, while 54% expressed interest in targeted programs for women-owned businesses. At the same time, 67.5% of respondents noted that they need funds directly for their businesses’ development.

At the same time, female entrepreneurs face a number of new challenges: 43% experience a shortage of staff, and 23% need further knowledge to scale up, with the greatest interest in business training, legal advice, and mentoring.