Article - Interviews

Sofia Kounenaki Efraimoglou: Initiatives so that women have equal access to capital

“Women don’t need any special treatment status, but the right tools to start, and of course, there are obstacles in their way just because they are women...it is enough that prejudices and gender stereotypes cease to exist,” Sofia Kounenaki Efraimoglou, president of the National Chamber Network of Women Entrepreneurs (EEDEGE), first vice-president of EBEA (Athens Chamber of Commerce & Industry – ACCI) and vice president of the Foundation of the Hellenic World, noted in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

As Ms. Efraimoglou stressed, “we will continue to take the lead in the conversation to shape a modern legal framework based on balancing work and family life,” while she revealed that soon a Greece-wide upskilling program of 5,000 young, unemployed women will be launched, aimed at facilitating their entry into the labour market.

Furthermore, as she noted, committees are being formed throughout all the chambers of commerce of the country aimed at the multifaceted and accurate briefing of women, adding that EEDEGE is leading in the creation of a steady pillar of knowledge-sharing and support of women’s entrepreneurship, by taking part in the Innovation Centre for women, in cooperation with the ministries as well as the research centres from all over Greece and Norway.

Ms. Efraimoglou underscored that the biggest challenge relates to the technological evolution and digital transformation, and in this field women must not be left behind, while she added emphatically: “It is absurd that from an investment point of view funds not be given to a business that may have the best possible potential, just because of this stereotype. Therefore, we must take initiatives to deal with the issue in a 360-degree way, so that women have equal access to funds.”

Finally, she noted that the large bet for the Foundation of the Hellenic World for 2022 is the roll out of the XR Cosmos program, through which a New Productive Innovation and Development Model for Extended Reality will be introduced.

Read the interview with the Athens News Agency with journalist Evi Papadosiphaki.

Read more at https://www.amna.gr/en