Egypt Hosts Four African Countries to Enforce Cooperation on MSE Development

“Enforcing economic cooperation with the African continent is an action priority for the Egyptian Government and agrees with the presidential orientations that call for encouraging investments and striking economic and trade integration among African countries and Egypt,” said Minister of Trade and Industry and MSMEDA’s Executive Director Ms. Nevine Gamea.

“This cooperation is based on transferring Egypt’s experience on developing MSE, creating the enabling legislative and organizational environment, introducing easy-term finance, providing technical and marketing services, enhancing manufacturing and operational skills  of entrepreneurs and studying the needs of African markets to Egyptian products…,” added Ms. Gamea..

These statements were made during a visit made by an African delegation comprising representatives of four development institutions namely, Cameron, Senegal, Ivory Coast and the Comoros to MSMEDA to acquaint with its experience on MSE development through Islamic finance.

During the visit, the African representatives have first-hand information about the successful enterprises MSMEDA has implemented in cooperation with the Islamic Bank for Development through the Youth Employment Support (YES) Project. According to YES, 2555 enterprises have been funded at 906 million Egyptian Pounds creating more than 20 thousand job opportunities.

The delegation has also visited a project MSMEDA has implemented in conjunction with Misr El Kheir Foundation on animal wealth development through Ard El Kheir Project according to which more than 1800 clients have been funded in the governorates of New Valley, Assiut, Tour City in South Sinai and El Wahat El Baharia in Giza.

Later, MSMEDA Qualibia Branch has received the delegation and informed representatives about MSMEDA’s mechanisms and experience in launching the One-Stop Shop (OSS) model to assist clients in getting the documents needed for their enterprises.

The delegation has wrapped up the visit by getting familiarized with MSMEDA’s activities on MSE finance and non-financial services as well that include, for example, training courses on entrepreneurship development and specialized programs on upgrading handicraft and marketing skills, together with community infrastructure projects that generate daily jobs for casual workers