Microfinance for Senior Entrepreneurship: Unlocking Untapped Potential

After successful campaigns spotlighting female and youth entrepreneurship, the Microfinance Centre (MFC) and 17 partners are now focusing on a group often overlooked in business creation: older adults.

This year’s campaign, Microfinance for Senior Entrepreneurship, draws on insights from the OECD’s Missing Entrepreneurs report and showcases inspiring stories from microfinance institutions across Europe. The goal? To raise awareness, share knowledge, and advocate for policies that support senior entrepreneurs.

Why Seniors?

Europe’s population of healthy, skilled older adults is growing. Many have the time, experience and financial means to remain economically active — yet few start new businesses. In 2022, the number of “missing” senior entrepreneurs (aged 50–64) was 145% higher than those actually engaged in early-stage entrepreneurship in the EU, and 103% higher in the OECD. If seniors were as active as men aged 30–49, the EU would see 5.5 million more senior entrepreneurs — and the OECD, 21.2 million.

While self-employment among seniors is rising, the leap into entrepreneurship remains rare. This under-representation makes older adults a critical demographic for inclusive entrepreneurship support.

What Microfinance Can Do

Microfinance institutions across Europe are already helping seniors turn ideas into businesses. This campaign highlights what’s working — and what more can be done. By increasing visibility, sharing practical knowledge, and engaging policymakers, we aim to strengthen microfinance’s role in fostering age-diverse entrepreneurship.

“The Microfinance Centre and its partners have supported the ‘missing entrepreneurs’ for over three years,” said Ewa Bankowska, MFC Deputy Director. “We believe everyone deserves a fair chance to build a sustainable business − regardless of age, gender, birthplace or employment status. Inclusive entrepreneurship drives inclusive growth.”

Last year’s campaign focused on youth. The year before, on women. This year, it’s seniors. The mission remains the same: to expand access to entrepreneurship through microfinance.

About the Missing Entrepreneurs Report

Published biennially, The Missing Entrepreneurs explores how government policies can unlock entrepreneurial potential among under-represented groups — including women, youth, seniors, immigrants, the unemployed and people with disabilities.

Meet the 2025 Campaign Partners

Albania: Albanian Microfinance Association, Agro and Social Fund, FedInvest, Fondi Besa, Kredo, NOA
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Association of Microfinance Institutions, EKI, Mi-Bospo, Partner
Greece: Microsmart
North Macedonia: Horizonti, Moznosti
Moldova: Microinvest, Prima Finantare
Montenegro: Monte Credit
Romania: Vitas30

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. 

The Missing Entrepreneurs is a series of biennial reports examining how government policies can release untapped entrepreneurial potential from under-represented parts of the population of impactful entrepreneurs, including women, youth, seniors, the unemployed, immigrants and people with disabilities. It offers comparative data on the entrepreneurship activities and the barriers faced by each group across OECD and European Union countries. It takes a deep dive into the effectiveness of youth entrepreneurship schemes and the design of welfare bridge schemes for business creation by job seekers. It also contains country profiles for each of the 27 EU Member States showing the major recent trends in diversity in entrepreneurship and the current state and evolution of policy for each country.