In 2022, 664,000 people took part in Center-invest Bank’s educational projects and acceleration programmes. Over the year, entrepreneurs have attracted 456 million rubles in funding for business development, setting up new production facilities and new areas of trade with friendly countries.
The bank runs 4 acceleration programmes and actively engages successful entrepreneurs in the bank’s ecosystem to share experiences and mentor them:
- on the import and export of goods
- on bringing goods to marketplaces
- on self-employment practices
- on small business practices.
The bank has an agreement with the China Young Entrepreneur Association, as well as the French accelerator INCO, to introduce domestic products to global markets.
As part of its ESG strategy, the bank implements financial literacy projects through Financial Literacy Centres in the regions where it operates:
- 600,000 people across Russia have been trained in the Central Bank’s Online Financial Literacy Lessons project
- 1,023 financial literacy volunteers trained.
The Bank supports the education system in the region by strengthening Endowment Funds. In 2022, the Bank increased the capital of its own Education and Science of the Southern Federal District Endowment Fund to 216 million rubles, as well as the endowment funds of major universities: SFU, DSTU and RSUE (RINH): by 3 million rubles each. The positive effect of this work is a record 9,000 applications in the 20th anniversary Smart Scholarship competition, which the bank holds annually for students who dream of developing their own business project.
By implementing the ESG business model, Center-invest Bank is making a significant contribution to shaping the new educational infrastructure and building entrepreneurial capacity to develop the knowledge economy for the benefit of current and future generations.