BNP Paribas and entrepreneurial women: Highlights of our news since January 2019

For many years, BNP Paribas has actively created a favourable environment for women entrepreneurs through various information and training initiatives, support programmes and access to microloans.

Points to remember in 2019…

It has undertaken actions that combat the persistent obstacles to women’s entrepreneurship, as evidenced in a 2018 study by the Women Initiative Foundation conducted in partnership with BNP Paribas Wealth Management. For 2019, BNP Paribas has made new commitments, such as mobilising EUR 2 billion in bank loans and equity financing for women’s entrepreneurship.

This commitment is materialising everywhere the Group is present, particularly in emerging countries.

There, we are taking action to give “women a role at least equal to that of men in agro-ecological transformation”, as highlighted by Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, CEO of BNP Paribas, on International Women’s Day in 2019.

On that day, UN Women and BNP Paribas signed a partnership to develop climate-resilient agriculture and women’s entrepreneurship in Senegal, which aims to empower 30,000 women farmers by 2021.

The BNP Paribas Foundation has also got involved, partnering the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation to finance the One Planet Fellowship programme. This promotes equality between men and women in agriculture and adapting to climate change.