Back to the complete issue
Thursday, 12 September 2019

EBRD, Sawiris Foundation team up to develop Egyptian SMEs

EBRD and SFSD team up to develop Egyptian SMEs: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) are partnering up to support the development and expansion of SMEs in Egypt, focusing on those of young people and women, according to an EBRD statement (pdf).

Training programs for youth, business development services for women: Training programs will be provided to improve the entrepreneurial skills of women and young entrepreneurs who have start-ups. Women entrepreneurs will also be given exclusive access to non-financial business development services, including coaching and mentoring support and the ability to use the yet-to-be-launched Women in Business online networking platform.

EBRD to also help NGOs with similar goals: The bank will also lend a hand to NGOs who work with women entrepreneurs, providing them with diagnostic skills workshops to better identify the needs of small businesses and their areas of improvement. This part of the program will use their automated management tool, Business Lens.

In other EBRD news, Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir discussed new investment prospects for the bank in the sector in a meeting yesterday with a delegation from the bank’s board of directors, according to an official statement. The meeting also reviewed ongoing projects in the sector the EBRD is financing, including the 6 October-new capital monorail.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.