NAYRA, an initiative of EWA Group, joins the UAE Chapter delegation to the BRICS WBA in New Delhi

NAYRA profiled in the Alliance's compendium as the UAE Chapter sets out an innovation and financial capability agenda

NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- EWA Group joined the UAE Chapter delegation to the BRICS Women's Business Alliance in New Delhi, where the Women-Led Development Conference opened the Alliance's programme on 9 September under India's presidency of the group.
The organisation's President, Yulia Stark, who would go on to represent the chapter in two of the Alliance's working groups at the Annual General Meeting, attended alongside Head of Strategic Partnerships Lucero Liriano Castillo. EWA Group has worked alongside the UAE Chapter in support of its programme, and travelled to New Delhi in that capacity.
The UAE Chapter, chaired by Feryal Ahmadi, Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer of DMCC, is taking a practical approach to the Alliance. Its objectives are to turn cooperation into greater access to markets, skills and finance, to develop initiatives that carry measurable economic value, and to build models that other BRICS economies can adapt and scale.

NAYRA answers each of those three tests. The mobile-first financial literacy platform, delivered in partnership with DMCC and the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, works on access, giving women the financial knowledge and the confidence to act on it. It measures what it changes, through its Financial Confidence Index. And it is built to be localised, so the model can be adapted by other BRICS markets rather than staying in one.

The Alliance was established in 2020 to advance women's entrepreneurship, leadership and economic participation across BRICS economies. It brings together national chapters and operates through six working groups.
The UAE Chapter was represented on three panels: Prof. Dr. Hoda Alkhzaimi on women in STEM, digital technologies and innovation; H.E. Badreya Al Maidoor on women's inclusion in financial and digital ecosystems; and H.E. Ayesha Al Mulla on women-led startups and innovation ecosystems. Access to finance and financial capability recurred across the day's sessions, including those addressing sectors outside financial services.

NAYRA was profiled in the Alliance's compendium, the publication through which the BRICS WBA records women-focused and women-led initiatives from across its member economies. It is an active programme in the UAE, reaching women and girls through universities and business associations, and it is carried into the Alliance through the UAE Chapter's Inclusive Economy work.
Lucero Liriano Castillo, Head of Strategic Partnerships at EWA Group and Co-Founder of NAYRA, on why the platform was built:
“Women are expected to be confident with money long before anyone gives them the knowledge to be. We built NAYRA to close that gap and to measure it, so that financial confidence is something we can evidence rather than assert. That is also what makes the programme portable: the same measurement travels to any market that wants to use it.”
Working group sessions and the Annual General Meeting followed on 10 September, with Yulia Stark representing the UAE Chapter in the Innovative Development and Inclusive Economy working groups.

“Nothing durable in this field is built by one actor alone. Financial capability moves when government sets the direction, academia tests what actually works and the private sector carries it to scale. That is the ecosystem the Alliance is well placed to convene, and it is how a result achieved in one market becomes a result available to all of them.”
Yulia Stark, Founder and President of EWA Group, said.


About EWA Group
EWA Group is an international non-profit that connects governments, institutions and capital to widen economic participation for women and youth. It works across European, GCC and Latin American corridors through three channels: the European Women Association, its bilateral investment councils, and NAYRA, its financial literacy platform. More at ewagroup.org.

Media contact
EWA Group Communications
info@ewagroup.org

Yulia Stark
EWA Group
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn