An opening ceremony was held within the scope of the “Female Accountants Participate in the Workforce with SOGEP” project, supported under the Mevlana Development Agency 2024 Social Development Support Program (SOGEP) and carried out by the Konya Chamber of Certified Public Accountants.

Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General Dr. İhsan Bostancı, Konya Chamber of Certified Public Accountants President Abdil Erdal, managers of public institutions and organizations, female accountant candidates, and many guests attended the program held at the Konya Chamber of Certified Public Accountants.

With the inaugurated project, it is aimed to provide accounting training to female accountant candidates needed in the business world, as well as training on project writing, execution, and reporting, and to direct them to employment.

Delivering the opening speech of the program, Konya Chamber of Certified Public Accountants President Abdil Erdal said, “Today, we are proud and excited to be together at the opening meeting of our “Female Accountants Participate in the Workforce with SOGEP” project, supported by Mevlana Development Agency and implemented within the scope of the 2024 Social Development Support Program (SOGEP). This project aims not only to provide vocational knowledge to women but also to enable them to take place as stronger individuals in economic life. In line with today's needs, we will not be content with only theoretical training but will also provide practical competence in leading industry applications such as Zirve software. In addition, with the training we will provide in areas such as government support and project management, we will support the strong participation of our women in the workforce and their long-term employment. With the project, which we aim to complete in 18 months, we will train 240 women in 12 groups, and at the end of these trainings, we will bring at least 70 women into business life and add a new breath to our region. With our modern computer laboratory to be established within our Chamber, our women will be well-equipped by benefiting from all the possibilities of technology. These trained candidates will also meet the intermediate staff needs of professionals and companies in need of personnel. 90% of our project, which has a budget of over 2 Million TL, is financed by Mevlana Development Agency. This strong support gives us confidence and motivation on this path. We wholeheartedly believe that with our project, which will be completed on September 3, 2026, our women will leave permanent marks not only in their individual lives but also in the development of our society. I would like to extend my endless thanks to all institutions and organizations that supported us on this exciting journey, to our project team that worked with great devotion, and to our valuable stakeholders. I wish this project, where we will add strength to the power of our region with the labor of our women, to be beneficial to all of us,” he said.

Afterwards, Mevlana Development Agency Secretary General Dr. İhsan Bostancı, who took the floor and made evaluations about the support they provided as an institution to the inaugurated project, said, “Development Agencies, which continue their work to contribute to the development of their responsible regions in every aspect with the understanding of “Development Starts Locally”, are development units that bring together public, private sector, and non-governmental organizations and operate as supportive, coordinator, and catalyst. As Mevlana Development Agency, while we aim for the development of our region with various support mechanisms we implement, on the other hand, we continue our efforts together with our stakeholders to attract national and international fund resources to our region and use them in line with the needs of our region. In this direction, by our Agency, within the scope of the Social Development Support Program, briefly called SOGEP, coordinated by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, General Directorate of Development Agencies at the central level and implemented locally by Development Agencies, 90 Million TL of resources had been transferred to 13 projects in the priorities of increasing employability, supporting social entrepreneurship, social inclusion and social responsibility since 2018. Within the scope of the 2024 program, whose contracts we signed in March under the supervision of our Konya Governor, Mr. İbrahim Akın, a total of 6 more projects, 5 from Konya and 1 from Karaman, were entitled to receive support. With these successful projects, the total resources allocated by our Agency to the SOGEP program exceeded 100 Million TL. With the “Female Accountants Participate in the Workforce with SOGEP” project, which we inaugurated and are very pleased to support as an Agency, it is aimed to provide necessary training to female accountant candidates needed in the business world, including training on widely used accounting software, as well as project writing, execution, and reporting, and to direct them to employment. Within the scope of the project to be carried out with the support of our Agency, 240 women will be given training on accounting and benefiting from government support, and at least 70 female accountants who successfully complete the training will be employed. In the computerized training laboratory to be established within the scope of the project, our chamber will also organize trainings for both members and accountant candidates after the project. As 26 Development Agencies, under the coordination of our ministry, we prioritize projects carried out on certain themes every year nationwide, and the theme for 2025 has been determined as women's entrepreneurship and women's employment. The increasing female unemployment rates in recent years make the issue of female employment a priority for our region as well. The amount of resources allocated by our Agency to the project, which we expect to contribute to reducing these rates, is 1 Million 850 Thousand TL. As the Agency, I would like to express once again that our support as an institution for projects that will contribute to the development of our region and produce solutions to its problems will continue, and I thank our Konya Chamber of Certified Public Accountants and the Konya Branch of the Basic Education and Internship Center for their great efforts in the realization of the project, and I offer our gratitude to our esteemed Konya Governor who sponsored the project, and I wish the project to be beneficial for our city, region, and country,” he said.

After the opening speeches, a project promotion meeting was held, and the activities to be carried out within the scope of the project were shared with the public.