Citibank JSC and Junior Achievement support young people in the development of entrepreneurship
Citi Ukraine and Junior Achievement continue their cooperation to encourage entrepreneurship among vocational education students and secondary school students. The grant from Citi Ukraine in the amount of 155 thousand dollars will be used to build entrepreneurial skills, develop financial literacy and create business projects.
Students and apprentices will participate in the international training program "Company", which is recommended by the European Commission as one of the best methods for developing an entrepreneurial mindset for young people. As part of the project, participants will create mini-companies and learn how to manage them. During the year, with the help of teachers and business mentors, young people will gain real entrepreneurial experience.
"Citi cooperates with Junior Achievement not only in Ukraine, but also at the global level. It is important for us that the grant helps young people believe in their strength and dreams through the creation of their own business projects. Our common value is the formation of a new generation of leaders who will influence the economy and reconstruction of Ukraine in the coming years," said Alexander McWhorter, Chairman of the Board of JSC Citibank.
"The partnership with Citi Ukraine is a joint investment in the future of Ukraine. We are convinced that entrepreneurial skills are important for every young person, and they contribute to professional success in any field. Thanks to our project, young people gain real entrepreneurial experience - not in theory, but in practice: they create companies, produce products and learn from their own results. It is this approach that forms an active and enterprising generation, which will become the basis of economic reconstruction." - said Yuriy Tokarskyi, head of Junior Achievement Ukraine.
The grant supports the implementation of the "Company" training program in eight regions of Ukraine: Kyiv, Lviv, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Chernivtsi. The program provides an integrated approach to the development of entrepreneurial competencies of young people — from certified training of teachers in modern methods of teaching entrepreneurship to the organization of practical educational events for students aimed at developing soft skills, as well as practical business competencies, in particular in the field of sales and financial management.
In total, more than 1830 students participate in the program in these regions, who have created 193 educational mini-companies based on 110 educational institutions. A practical component of the program is the participation of young people in the youth entrepreneurship fairs "Junior EXPO", which will be held in different cities of Ukraine in the spring. During the events, participants will present and sell products and services created as part of the training. Citi Ukraine employees act as mentors for young entrepreneurs, sharing their professional experience.
The final stage of the program will be the Youth Business Day, which will take place on May 21, 2026, during which the best training mini-company of the year will be determined. The winning team will represent Ukraine at Gen-E, the largest European youth entrepreneurship competition, which will be held this year in Riga (Republic of Latvia).
About Citi Ukraine
Citi Ukraine is part of Citigroup, one of the four largest banks in the United States by assets. We have been in Ukraine for more than 25 years. Our offering covers all aspects of cash and liquidity management, trading services and finance, treasury services, corporate finance and lending, securities services and issuer services. We are honored to help unlock the country's economic potential by serving nearly 500 clients, including the public sector, multinational corporations, leading Ukrainian companies and foreign investors wishing to invest in the Ukrainian market.
About Junior Achievement
JA Ukraine is part of Junior Achievement Worldwide – an international network of non-profit organizations that has been helping young people gain professional knowledge and skills necessary to achieve career success for more than 100 years.
JA programs are successfully developed in 40 countries in Europe and in more than 100 countries around the world, reaching more than 100 million young people annually.