The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) injected EGP 2.5bn in Beni Suef during the period from January 1992 until February 2019, according to chairperson of the agency, Nevine Gamea.
She explained that some 203,000 small and micro projects were implemented in Beni Suef governorate with EGP 2.2bn funding, which generated about 291,000 jobs. Additionally, grants worth EGP 330.9bn were provided for infrastructure projects, community development, and training, creating about 42,000 jobs.
Furthermore, Gamea stressed that the state’s plan to achieve Sustainable Development Strategy 2030 gave the micro and small enterprises sector a great role in promoting the national economy, taking part in the development process, and contributing toward reducing unemployment.
She explained that this is the role played by the agency in the current phase, through coordinating and cooperating with all the ministries of the state that are concerned with the sector of small enterprises, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private institutions interested in this sector. This is in order to provide more facilities and services, as well as to create the proper climate to help the advancement of these projects, and encourage citizens and young people to be self-employed and become entrepreneurs, in order to achieve a better future for them based on research, creativity, and innovation.
This came during a speech delivered by Raafat Abbas, head of the Central Sector of Non-Financial Services at the MSMEDA, on behalf of Nevin Gamea, at the conference held by Beni Suef University on the role of entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) toward achieving sustainable development in Egypt 2030.
Abbas pointed out that the agency gives special attention to young peoples’ projects, which rely on new and innovative ideas. The MSMEDA works to implement them through cooperating with public and private universities in order to raise awareness of the importance of entrepreneurial projects, motivate young people to enter the field of entrepreneurship, and encourage them to innovate, as well as qualify them to manage small projects.
He explained that the agency provides various training programmes, including awareness and introduction programmes, the ‘Know Your Skills and Entrepreneurial Skills’ programme. This is in addition to programmes to encourage people to start their own projects, as well as guidance and direction programmes which specialise in helping project owners who are about to start their own projects.
The agency also provides various financial services through banks, NGOs, and direct lending, which are suitable for all types of projects, he added. The agency additionally provides single window units to facilitate procedures for issuing the documents required for projects, technical support programmes, and various types of marketing and selling programmes.
An exhibition for the products of SMEs, funded and supported by the MSMEDA, was opened on the sidelines of the conference. Moreover, a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed between the agency, Beni Suef, and Al Nahda Universities, with the aim of spreading the culture of entrepreneurship and self-employment, as well as qualifying university graduates and students to establish and manage their own projects successfully–especially those based on innovative and creative ideas.
