Nevine Gamea, CEO of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) said that the agency funded 13,000 micro and small projects in the New Valley governorates, worth EGP 449m, between 1992 and September 2018, which created 29,000 jobs.
Between January and September 2018, MSMEDA injected EGP 77m to finance 701 micro and small projects, thus creating over 2,000 jobs and providing non-financial services, such as awareness, training, consultancy, marketing and exhibitions. MSMEDA trained 184 youth through eight programmes for ‘Ibdaa Mashro3ak’ (Start Your Project) and ‘Leadership Skills’.
Gamea said that MSMEDA is working to double the funding for small projects in the New Valley, and seeks to encourage youth to lead entrepreneurships and establish successful projects due to its good economic returns.
Moreover, MSMEDA granted EGP 62m to implement infrastructure high density and community development projects, which created 7,000 jobs. She noted that it also provided non-banking financial services to the residents of the New Valley governorates, including the one-stop shop, which provided 1,400 licenses.
Gamea has recently visited the New Valley governorate with several MSMEDA officials as part of a series of visits to different governorates. This is to activate programmes, improve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), open new cooperation channels, and spread the self-employment culture among citizens.
The MSMEDA delegation met with Mohamed El Zamlout, governor of the New Valley, to discuss cooperation means and put together a general framework to support micro and small projects in the governorates.
During the visit, a training course for entrepreneurship was launched in the framework of the ‘Start Your Project’ programme, which is being implemented by MSMEDA, in cooperation with the International Labour Organization, and funded by Canadian International Affairs. A memorandum of understanding was signed between MSMEDA and the New Valley University to spread the entrepreneurship culture and self-employment.
The agency also signed a project development contract with one of the associations working in the community development activity in Farafra, with total funding worth EGP 5m to improve and develop projects. Furthermore, a protocol was signed to train 20 women on manufacturing wicker and palm as part of the agency’s initiatives to empower women.
