From the Skopje Aqueduct to new financing channels

How can microfinance reach the businesses and people who need it?

Following successful editions in Sarajevo and Dubrovnik, Skopje will host MicroBalkans 26, a leading regional conference on the future of non-bank microfinance, fintech innovation and financial inclusion in the Western Balkans.

The Skopje Aqueduct has been chosen as the event's visual symbol. Just as aqueducts once carried water to cities, the financial sector must build more effective channels through which capital, knowledge and innovation can reach the businesses and people who drive the economy.

At a time when access to finance is a key issue for the growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, the third edition of MicroBalkans will focus on new lending models, digitalisation and regional cooperation.

Under the theme “Lending Reimagined”, the conference will bring together banks, non-bank financial institutions, microcredit institutions, regulators, investors, fintech companies, development partners and the business community from the Western Balkans and across Europe.

The central question is how to make capital more accessible and deliver it more quickly and responsibly to businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals. This matters especially in economies where small businesses play a major role in creating jobs and economic value.

The aqueduct symbol reflects a broader understanding of financial infrastructure. Alongside money, that infrastructure depends on connections, trust, technology and effective channels between the different participants in the system.

The agenda will address developments already changing the financial sector, including digital lending, artificial intelligence, data analytics, European regulation, financial inclusion and responsible lending. It will also explore opportunities for closer cooperation between banks, non-bank financial institutions and microcredit institutions.

Finance as the lifeblood of the economy

For a small company, access to finance can turn an idea into a practical investment in equipment, technology, people or a new market. For individuals, it can help meet a particular need at the time support matters most.

Banks, non-bank financial institutions, microcredit institutions, savings houses, fintech companies, investors and development institutions have different roles within the same financial system. The better they work together, the more effectively capital can reach the parts of the economy where it can create value.

Lending enters a new phase

Technology is already changing how financial institutions assess risk, make decisions and design products. Artificial intelligence, data analytics, automation and digital financial services create opportunities for faster, more flexible and more personalised lending.

Those opportunities come with responsibilities: consumer protection, financial literacy, data privacy, regulatory compliance and careful risk management.

The theme “Lending Reimagined” captures a question facing the region's financial sector: what will lending look like over the next decade?

Skopje brings the regional financial sector together

Non-bank financial institutions and microcredit institutions that belong to the Western Balkans Alliance operate in different markets and under different regulatory frameworks. Yet they share many challenges, including limited access to capital, the need to digitalise, alignment with European standards and the development of sustainable financing models.

MicroBalkans 26 aims to turn those shared challenges into a regional conversation about practical solutions, partnerships and financing channels that can work across borders. By bringing together key participants in the financial system, the event will give them space to discuss the future of lending in the region.

Where an aqueduct once carried water to a city, today's financial infrastructure carries capital, technology and knowledge to people and businesses capable of generating sustainable economic growth.

The question is how well these channels work, as well as how much capital the region has. This is the conversation MicroBalkans 26, the Western Balkans Alliance conference for the microfinance sector, will open in Skopje.

The conference will take place on 24 and 25 September 2026 at the Holiday Inn Skopje. It is organised by the Group of Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFI Group) at the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia and the country's savings houses, in partnership with members of the Western Balkans Alliance and the European Microfinance Network.

View the programme and register for MicroBalkans 26.