Rahmi: Project Development Pumping 6 billion pounds to finance the medium, small and micro enterprises sector by 2024
Basil Rahmi, CEO of the Enterprise Development Agency, confirmed that the agency succeeded during the past year 2024 in achieving a large number of goals, as it pumped funds totaling 6 billion pounds to the medium, small and micro enterprise sector, an increase of 13% over the year 2023.
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He indicated that next year the agency aims to double these funds and focus more on productive projects. And industrial and expansion in financing projects in the border regions and Upper Egypt.
Rahmi said in a statement today – The Enterprise Development Agency will continue its efforts during the year 2025 and pump more necessary funds to support the medium, small and micro enterprise sector and provide and facilitate various non-financial and marketing services to encourage citizens, especially young people and new graduates, to enter the field of self-employment or develop their existing projects, in order to create more job opportunities. Decent and sustainable development, enhancing productivity in all areas of the market, and the participation of these projects in the economic development of the state.
He explained, over the course of a year By 2024, the agency expanded its small and microfinance activities in all governorates, as the agency signed 13 new contracts to finance small projects with (9) companies, including Aman Holding Company, Inmaa Company, Credit Company, and two banks, namely the National Bank and United Bank, for a total of 878 million pounds, while it was signed 41 new contracts with companies and civil associations to finance micro-projects worth about 900 million pounds, and among these companies is Tanmia Company for Micro-Project Services. Microfinance, Al-Khair Microfinance Company, and Cash Microfinance Company.
Rahmi added that during the year 2024, the agency continued its efforts to activate the Enterprise Development Law 152/2020 and coordinate with all relevant ministries and agencies in the state, in cooperation with the Small Projects Committee in the House of Representatives. With the aim of working to activate the law in an integrated manner and giving the small enterprise sector many incentives to advance it and increase its economic effectiveness
He pointed out that this cooperation resulted in the approval of Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Agency’s Board of Directors, to extend the period specified by the law regarding submitting requests to adjust the conditions of non-economic projects. The official period for a period of 3 years, in addition to the agreement with the National Authority for Social Insurance that in the event of regularization of the projects’ status, they will not be required to pay any contributions except from the date of obtaining status adjustment licenses from the agency, while continuing serious and effective cooperation with the Ministry of Finance to provide tax facilitations. For all small business owners.
The head of the Enterprise Development Agency said that the one-stop-shop units in all governorates issued about 13,000 classification certificates and more than 12,000 benefits certificates to project owners so that they can enjoy benefits. The law also issued more than 2,600 temporary licenses to regularize the conditions of informal projects so that they can benefit from the facilities provided by the law.
Rahmi added to the agency’s interest in disseminating The culture of self-employment among citizens, as the agency implemented 600 seminars to raise awareness about entrepreneurship, benefiting about 40,000 young men and women, while providing administrative, technical, and marketing training to more than 10,000 citizens, with the aim of training them to establish new projects or supporting the owners of existing projects to continue and develop.
Rahmi said that the agency established during the year 2024 a new organizational unit concerned with export and responsible for developing mechanisms to support small children. Potential exporters or exporters of medium, small and micro enterprises to help project owners market and reach foreign markets, while the volume of sales of small projects submitted through the agency for government tenders and contracts was doubled, and many African and European protocols and memorandums of understanding were signed to open the markets of these countries to the projects’ products. Egyptian.
Rahmy added that the agency also continued its efforts during the year 2024 to support entrepreneurship in Egypt by cooperating with an increasing number of partners by signing memorandums. Understanding and agreeing to implement joint programs that promote the culture of entrepreneurship and encourage the establishment of innovative and emerging companies, as contributions were made to a number of large investment funds with the aim of expanding support for emerging projects, including a project to contribute to the Capital Ventures Development Fund 2, with financing of 2.5 million dollars, and the Foundation Ventures Fund, with financing of 3 million dollars.
Regarding contributing to community development programs and projects and infrastructure development, Rahmi stressed that the agency continued to coordinate with international donors to extend the agreements signed with them. To implement programs in villages and governorates, as the year 2024 witnessed the signing of 40 contracts and 20 contract annexes, with a total financing of 222 million pounds, to finance these projects. The total actual disbursement amounted to about 120 million pounds, which provided 350,000 working days, in addition to the employment of 2,280 young men and women through projects to improve employment opportunities.
Rahmi said that the year 2024 also embodied the agency’s effective participation in implementing many presidential initiatives, most notably the initiative “A decent life” The agency continued to provide its financial and non-financial services to small and micro projects in all governorates and villages targeted by the initiative, in addition to contributing to the Presidential Human Development Initiative “A New Beginning for Human Building,” An action plan was developed through which funds were made available for various types of projects, with a total of 1.5 billion pounds, to finance 18,500 projects that provided 62,000 job opportunities, in addition to non-financial, training, and educational services, which were focused on intensively to develop the capabilities of youth in all governorates.
Regarding marketing support, Rahmi said that the agency facilitated the participation of a large number of project owners in 139 local and international exhibitions, in addition to cooperating with Damietta Governorate to organize a number of Made in Exhibition sessions. Damietta, while the year concluded with the launch of the “Our Heritage” exhibition. In its sixth session, this session received large participation from Arab and foreign countries.
