Turkcell Continues To Empower Women And Benefit Turkey With "Women Power To The Economy" Campaign

ISTANBUL, Turkey, September 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Turkcell (NYSE:TKC ,  ISE: TCELL), the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, together with the Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction ("TISVA") and the Turkey Grameen Microfinance Program, has initiated the "Women Power to the Economy" mobile for development campaign; a global first, for low-income women who are keen to engage in economic production in Turkey.

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"Women Power to the Economy" is the first of its kind globally where an operator collaborates with a microfinance institution to launch a "social lending/crowdfunding" model, enabling people who want to support low-income women by lending money via online and mobile payments.  The social lending/crowdfunding, strengthened by Turkcell's technology, also enables women to participate in the economy through this mobile for development campaign. The campaign features:

• More Funding Through Social Lending enables donating or lending from handsets (m.ekonomiyekadingucu.com), online ( http://www.ekonomiyekadingucu.com) as well as other payment options, including mobile payment and credit cards.
• Mobile Marketplace Platform enables women to market their products to a larger audience via Turkcell's mobile announcement infrastructure throughout Turkey.
• Handset Training for Beginners enables low-income women without handsets to have mobile phones in a feasible way along with beginners training for improved communication with the Foundation and business partners.
• Mobile Personal Development Program gives mobile training on sales-marketing, communications, and financial literacy via Turkcell's mobile education infrastructure, enabling women to grow their businesses.
• The mobilization of microcredit cash flow reduces physical cash transactions during the granting and collection of microcredit with the help of mobile technologies, which is a first in Turkey.  Within this model, through mobile technology solutions that Turkcell has developed: i) entrepreneurs will have secure access to financial services through their handsets, while developing "money management" awareness through the use of mobile phones. ii)  Operational efficiency will increase with the transition to electronic money. "Women Power to the Economy" initially aims to reach out to 55,000 women, and to 100,000 within 4 years. Turkcell is making an initial donation of TRY400,000 to boost the economic participation of women in the city of Van, by opening a branch together with TISVA to take actions  for economically disadvantaged women.

Turkcell CEO Sureyya Ciliv has said that, "The rate of women joining Turkey's workforce is just 28%. This hints at a hidden potential, which has neither been included in the economy, nor given any opportunity of inclusion. As Turkcell, our biggest target is to support Turkey's development through innovative solutions, and we have built one of the world's best mobile communication infrastructures to facilitate this.  The starting point of all our social responsibility projects has been the desire to make a difference for our people through equal opportunity.  With our "Women Power to the Economy" Project, we are uniting our communication and technology power and innovative solutions with Turkish women.    Let us all invest in Turkey's future together."

The president of TISVA, Professor Aziz Akgul, commented that "1 out of 5 women in Turkey (app. 7 million women) is low-incomed.   This model that has been strengthened by Turkcell's technology will transform into social solidarity, whereby our women will feel the support of millions of people and embrace their future with new hope."

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