
Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy
These 20,000 projects contributed to providing 153,000 job opportunities nationwide, Shaarawy said in a statement by the ministry.
In light of the political leadership’s directives to encourage young people to establish micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to accelerate development and reduce the problem of unemployment, “Your project” was launched by the Ministry of Local Development in 2015, according to Shaarawy.
The ministry stated that this project works with the Central Bank of Egypt to provide financing for projects with interest rates that do not exceed five percent.
The main objective of the next phase of “Your Project” is focusing on the quality of projects and the provided services, the minister stated.
The Ministry of Local Development is concerned with supporting MSMEs because of their pivotal role in developing and advancing production in various fields, as well as their role in implementing Egypt's Vision 2030, he added.
The highest number of projects were implemented in Upper Egypt's Minya Governorate, with 2,500 projects. The governorate with the second highest number of projects is Sohag with 2,119 projects, then Daqahliya with 2,050 projects.
"Your Project" is not limited only to financing projects, but it helps overcome obstacles to implementation by offering a one-stop system to receive and respond to requests, shrinking the documentation required for loan applicants, facilitating financing procedures, and simplifying the bank’s approval process.
The minister concluded that about 260 headquarters for "Your Project" have been established across all the country’s governorates.
In April, Shaarawy said that the total number of projects implemented by “Your Project” has exceeded 190,000 with loans of EGP 22.6 billion, noting that these projects have provided more than 1.4 million job opportunities.
Also in April, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said stated that about 73 percent of all of the government’s contracts were signed with micro- and small-sized businesses over the past 41 months, which reflects the importance the state attaches to supporting them.
Maait explained that such efforts to support MSMEs come under Law 188/2020, which governs the tax and non-tax incentives the government can offer these key businesses.
In Egypt, small- and medium-sized enterprises’ total capital reached EGP 77.1 billion in 2020 across about 1.7 million institutions, according to the latest data published by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).
Furthermore, the country registered 3.6 million MSMEs so far, with 9.7 million employees receiving salaries estimated at EGP 119.2 billion.
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