CAIRO: The best micro projects of 2010 were celebrated by Citi Foundation and Sanabel in an awards ceremony to highlight the accomplishments of 20 entrepreneurs. “We're here today to celebrate winners,” said Aftab Ahmed, Citi country officer for Egypt. “This program is an excellent forum to celebrate economic heroes that developed small successful businesses.” Those praised for their work were selected out of thousands of clients who qualified in the various categories. Clients range between all sectors in the work force and include selling vegetables on the street, sewing, carpentry, children books and crafts and kiosks and supermarkets. The awards' categories included innovation, entrepreneurship and youth. Sanabel, a microfinance network operating in the Arab region, was established in 2002 to provide support to microfinance institutions that provide loans to low income clients. “Citi Foundation has been one of the largest contributors to our network and together we have worked on organizing this program to increase awareness on the importance of microfinance and the large number of such projects beneficiaries as it is one of the vital tools to combat poverty in Egypt as well as help in solving critical issues such as unemployment, poverty and low income employees,” said Ranya Abdel Baki, Sanabel executive director. “These individuals are making a strong contribution to their community and empowered themselves to make better lives for themselves, their families and their communities,” Ahmed said of the award winners. He continued to honor the award recipients for what he calls their initiative, leadership, creativity and ingenuity. “As I look at the work around the room, the only word that comes to mind is ‘impressed,'” Ahmed said after seeing the work of some winners. Between 2005 and 2008, the number of microfinance borrowers has increased in Egypt by 47 percent annually from 550,000 to 1.3 million, which ranks the country at the top of the Arab world in terms of microfinance clients. Abdel Baki said regulations re the biggest concern in Egypt and the organization is working with an international donor for the next three years to focus on Jordan, Palestine and Egypt to make sure environment is conducive for microfinance. She also noted that also along the lines of regulations, they are working on client protection as well to make sure that as the sector becomes more commercialized, the borrower's interests are kept at heart and are not being taken advantage of. The loan amounts for borrowers vary depending on the project and could range from LE 500 to LE 100,000 with interest rates varying between the many lenders. Abdel Baki explained that the smaller lenders focus on inverse marketing to get their clients due to not having the commercial and monetary pleasure of being able to advertise with billboards or TV advertisements or else no one will know of their services. “Through microfinance, we help the low income become self-reliant and provide their own living,” she said. “These people are not getting charity and sometimes the interest rates are much higher than you or I would pay, but they're able to do it and able to do it on time,” she said of loan repayments. As far as the role of microfinance in the future of Egypt, Abdel Baki said it has the opportunity to play an enormous role. “We have a huge percentage of youth in Egypt and a lot of them have very little opportunities,” she said. “We can't wait for investors to come back, it'll happen, but over time; we can't keep on saying the government will employ them because that's not happening so these people must think like entrepreneurs and start their own businesses,” she added. “We are a strong committed partner to microfinance to help in any way we can,” Ahmed said of Citi's role in the sector. “Our involvement in microfinance shows our commitment to Egypt that we supported in the past and will continue to support in the future,” he concluded.
