Bank of Albania: MSME financing dashboard to be updated annually - EXCLUSIVE

The National Analytical Dashboard for MSME Financing by Gender is already publicly available on the Bank of Albania’s website. The current dashboard presents data for 2025. It will be further developed and updated in line with improvements in the underlying data, harmonisation of indicators and evolving analytical needs.

This was said by the source at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in an exclusive interview with CE Report.

The underlying indicators if the dashboard will be updated annually, allowing for regular monitoring of trends in MSME financing and progress in improving access to finance for women-owned and women-led businesses. https://www.bankofalbania.org/Statistikat/WE_Finance_Code_Shqip_e_ri/https://www.bankofalbania.org/Statistikat/WE_Finance_Code_Shqip_e_ri/

The dashboard provides aggregated, non-identifiable information allowing comparisons between women-owned and men-owned MSMEs. It covers the number and value of financing, as well as key characteristics such as loan maturity, interest rates, collateral, purpose, sector and geographical distribution. The dashboard also incorporates information on deposits and portfolio performance.

The Bank of Albania has not established specific lending quotas or quantitative credit targets under the WE Finance Code. The initiative is designed to strengthen the data and information base, support evidence-based dialogue and encourage concrete actions across the financial ecosystem, rather than direct lending towards a particular group. The Code itself is based on three pillars: Leadership, Action and Data.

The implementation of the Code in Albania is based on a National Coalition bringing together financial institutions, public institutions and other ecosystem stakeholders.

Under the WE Finance Code Albania, a commitment to participate has been made by banks and microfinance institutions, as well as by public institutions that play a role in producing and managing relevant business data. These include INSTAT, the General Directorate of Taxation, and the National Business Center (QKB), alongside financial institutions.

The participation of these stakeholders is important because the initiative is not aimed solely at increasing access to finance for women entrepreneurs, but also at establishing a reliable and harmonised data framework that will enable the gender gap in access to finance to be measured more effectively.

Broadly, the commitments are expected to include:

• Banks and microfinance institutions: collecting and reporting gender-disaggregated data, analysing women’s access to credit, and taking concrete measures to improve financial products and services available to women-led and women-owned businesses.
• INSTAT: contributing and harmonising statistics on enterprises and their characteristics, allowing for analysis by gender of ownership and/or management.
• General Directorate of Taxation: contributing relevant administrative data on the economic activity and performance of businesses.
• National Business Center (QKB): providing business registry data, including information that can support the identification and analysis of women-owned and women-led businesses.

Overall, one of the key strengths of the WE Finance Code Albania is its cross-institutional approach: banks and microfinance institutions provide data on financing, while INSTAT, the tax authorities and QKB contribute statistical and administrative data. Bringing these sources together can provide a more comprehensive picture of the financing needs and access to finance of women-owned and women-led businesses.

The infrastructure that has been established will allow progress to be measured over time through indicators such as:

• the volume of loans provided to women-owned and women-led MSMEs;
• the number of women-owned and women-led businesses receiving financing;
• the share of women-owned and women-led MSMEs in the overall MSME lending portfolio;
• the structure of loans provided to women-owned and women-led MSMEs;
• loan performance;
• gender differences in access to finance; and
• where these indicators are incorporated into future versions of the dashboard, financing conditions such as interest rates, loan maturities and collateral requirements.

The dashboard has been developed precisely to provide a reliable evidence base for understanding the current situation, identifying gaps, and measuring progress over time.

Photo: AI

This interview was prepared by Julian Müller