Cooperation between MSMEDA, banks worth LE 1.4 billion to fund Haya Karima villages: official

CAIRO – 7 August 2021: Tarek Shash, Executive Vice President of Egypt’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) said cooperation is carried out with banks to support the Haya Karima initiative with LE 1.4 billion.

The Haya Karima is a presidential initiative that aims to achieve comprehensive development nationwide and advance the Egyptian countryside through the development of infrastructure and facilities.

It also seeks to provide decent housing for the most vulnerable and needy groups, improving health and educational services, developing units and youth centers, as well as achieving economic empowerment, training and rehabilitation.

The initiative also aims at employing those who are able to work and establishing grouped service centers to provide all necessary services to citizens.

The government works, through its specialized sectors, to make rural villages an essential partner in development.

Shash said the initiative is the hugest across all countries as it touches the lives of a large number of citizens.

Among the efforts to support the establishment of small projects in the countryside is conducting 150 studies so far on small and micro projects to serve the initiative and the villages of the countryside.

The studies include the population of each village, the available investment opportunities and maximizing the potential of each village.

This also includes conducting a field survey of the available job opportunities for each village, conducting free trainings entitled "how to start a project".

The initiatives include providing youth financing from LE1,000 to LE 10 million to purchase factories and production lines.

They are also concerned with providing another package of services by identifying suitable sites for investment and making a feasibility study on the project.

The initiatives provide training for young men and girls on a number of handicrafts and industries required in each governorate.

They include periodic visits to the targeted villages and holding awareness seminars on the services of MSMEDA.

As many as 220,000 women will have benefited in 2021 from concessional financing.