Egypt's Arab African International Bank (AAIB) partnered with Maison Pyramide (MP), global platform that incubates emerging designers to empower fresh talent, launched their popup at Harvey Nichols in London from May 27 to July 14. The step comes as part of AAIB's effort to support young talents, promote entrepreneurship, and contribute to development. The MPxHN popup provides an opportunity to young talents to display their products in one of the iconic stores, allowing them to expand their business, reach a wider customer audience, and increase their brand awareness. It will feature brands such as the Cairo-based handbag company Okhtein, which is known for the brass work on its bags; straw accessories label Yosuzi, and ready-to-wear firms Nafsika Skourti and Nadya Dzyak. This partnership comes in line with AAIB's sustainability journey that started as early as 2003. Throughout these years, AAIB has been addressing several development pillars including health, sports, environment, reducing inequalities, and youth empowerment. "Now, after the launch of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, AAIB has been relying on these global goals as references to better select our initiatives and assess and measure our performance." AAIB's marketing and communications manager Sherif Hassan said on Thursday. "Supporting Maison Pyramide's popup allows AAIB to contribute to several SDGs including SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals." Hassan added. Additionally, this partnership also allows AAIB to target one of the SDGs related to the environment, which is SDG 15: Life on Land since Maison Pyramide prohibits using fur in their designs, AAIB official said. Moreover, a share of the total proceeds of The Shop will be invested into the youth educational programmes implemented by the Elisa Sednaoui Foundation in Egypt, which contributes to SDG 4: Quality Education. "Being one of the leading financial institutions in Egypt, our ultimate challenge is tailoring our business functions in a way that ensures that all our financing services and banking activities create a positive impact on the economic and social pillars." "Believing in the role of youth in entrepreneurship and its impact on economic and social development, AAIB has been focusing on supporting incubators to empower young entrepreneurs arise and achieve their potential." "Supporting MP has further proven the importance of coherence between civil society and financial institutions to support entrepreneurship in Egypt and to support our young Egyptian entrepreneurs, which in return creates new work opportunities for young generations and contributes to the Egyptian economy's growth which is the core definition of financial inclusion which is pursued by the Egyptian banking system." All designers displaying their products in the popup are females, which contributes to women empowerment. "In AAIB, we believe that in addition to being a justice and equality pillar, bringing more female entrepreneurs into businesses contributes to economic development, growth and stability since women have the capacity to start businesses and target markets with products that cater to a different clientele or niche than their male counterparts." "We believe that entrepreneurship has the potential to act as a catalyst that serves to solve many development challenges including unemployment and poverty, through providing employment and economic opportunities for younger people. Accordingly, we commit to continuously empowering them with our resources and expertise to achieve the 2030 agenda." Hassan concluded.
