Georgia

The Georgia office of German Sparkassenstiftung was established in 2002 in Tbilisi. The office team comprises the country representative of German Sparkassenstiftung, a training expert, a banking expert, an office assistant and a project driver. The Georgia office of German Sparkassenstiftung closely collaborates with local project partners for the various project activities and so assures sustainability and success of German Sparkassenstiftung’s projects.

Since its launch in Georgia, German Sparkassenstiftung has successfully completed KfW and Commerzbank joint project “Credit Guarantee Fund” from 2004 to 2010, closely cooperating with the Ministry of Finance of Georgia and three major commercial banks on SME finance. From 2011 throughout 2014 German Sparkassenstiftung has implemented a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on topics of savings mobilisation in the formal financial sector and consumer rights protection, partnering with the National Bank of Georgia and local commercial banks.

From 2015 until 2021, German Sparkassenstiftung implemented a regional project promoting “Responsible Finance” in South Caucasus and Ukraine. In Georgia, the project was realised in close collaboration with National Bank of Georgia, governmental bodies, training institutions, commercial financial institutions, associations, and other non-governmental stakeholders. This made it possible to create an environment fostering a responsible provision of financial services as well as the informed and qualified usage of these services by the population, along with savings mobilisation and the promotion and support of consumer protection. While working to promote the entire financial sector and so improving access to financial services for the population at large, German Sparkassenstiftung and their partners focused on households with low and medium incomes, particularly in rural areas.

On 1^st of March 2021 German Sparkassenstiftung in Georgia started implementing a new programme financed by BMZ, which aims at improving access to finance as well as business and risk management skills of MSMEs in rural areas. The first programme phase will last until the end of 2022.