Global SME Finance Awards 2025

Information Session on SME Financier of the Year

Be recognized, Share impact in SME FINANCE

The SME Finance Forum organizes the Global SME Finance Awards (The Awards) as a core part of its mission to create a unique platform for peer connections, knowledge dissemination, and innovations in SME Finance. The Forum’s extensive 240+ global network, crowds in financial institutions, fintech companies, development banks, policymakers, and industry experts from across the globe, fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing, and partnership building on a global scale. Hence, the Global SME Finance Awards has evolved into a pinnacle of global recognition for those making a real impact in the SME finance landscape.

Since its launch in 2018, The Awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements of financial service providers in delivering exceptional products and services to scale SME finance in their respective markets. It provides an opportunity for institutions to highlight and share good practices, impact, knowledge, and be recognized amongst the global peer group of world leaders in SME finance and services. 

We are rolling out a series of Information Sessions during the 2025 Awards Season to share with Financial Service Providers (FSPs) and Industry Stakeholders the role and importance of The Awards in showcasing remarkable achievements and impact in the industry. The sessions also aim to provide information on the application process, respective awards categories, and related information on the awards. Speakers include industry leaders and practitioners from the Forum’s global network, as well as past applicants and winners.

SPEAKERS:

Colin Sharp, Chief Sales Officer, C2FO

Elizabeth Prado, Institutional relations and alliance management coordinator BBVAMF

She currently works in the Communications and Institutional Relations Department of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation. From 2020-2023 she wasDirector of Communications and Women's Empowerment Department at Microserfin, the Foundation's MFI in Panama, where she was responsible for pushing the Gender Equity strategy as well as the implementation of different programs for women entrepreneurs' economic, social and digital inclusion in the country.

Before being part of the BBVAMF Group, she was as a journalist in mainstream media in Panama and was also a communications consultant in public relations agencies where she had the opportunity to work with multilateral organizations such as CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, technology companies such as Google and ZOHO among others, with impact in Panama and in the Central American and the Caribbean region. She has a degree in journalism from the National University of Panama.

Mete Önol, CFO, Tam Finans

Mete Önol serves as the CFO at Tam Finans, a Turkish commercial finance company offering factoring services to MSMEs, a role he has held since 2019. Leveraging his extensive expertise in financial management, Mete has been instrumental in driving Tam Finans’ financial strategy, such as:
- Achieving 23% annual asset growth over the last 4 years while increasing profitability
- Maintaining a network of +35 Financial Institution (FI) lenders from which Tam Finans has provided approximately 3.8 bn USD of financing to its customers
- Creating a 400 mn USD bond issuance program for the company, establishing an alternative unsecured funding channel
- Introducing an unsecured financing structure with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development of 10m EUR under their Trade Facilitation Program, a pioneering structure for a non-bank FI in Turkey
- Played an instrumental role in MNT-Halan’s acquisition of Tam Finans, one of the largest direct foreign investments in Turkey in the FI universe in the last decade.

Prior to joining Tam Finans, Mete spent 15 years at Intercity, a leading long-term operational car rental company, where he served as CFO. In this role, he focused on investor relations, international financial reporting and control, credit risk monitoring, and capital market transactions. His efforts contributed to securing over 2 billion EUR in funding and managing an average credit portfolio of 500 million EUR in collaboration with over 30 financial institutions. Since December 2012, he has also been a Member of the Board of Directors at Intercity.
After completing his undergraduate degree in Economics from Boğaziçi University and a master’s degree at the University of Delaware’s Business School, Mete worked for five years at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, where he led audit and consultancy projects across various sectors.

Susan Ndungu, Head SME, Commercial and SME Banking, Retail division, NCBA Bank Kenya PLC

Vincent W. Zheng, Deputy General Manager, WeBank

Vincent is an AI practitioner in the world’s leading digital bank. He develops FinTech solutions for SME finance. The solutions, ranging from user growth to user experience, are serving millions of SME’s in China.

*Categories, objectives and speakers' information will be shared soon