Nevine Gamea, chairperson of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the President of Al-Azhar University, Mohamed Hussein El Mohresawy, with the aim of spreading the culture of entrepreneurship. This cooperation aims to qualify university students and graduates to establish and manage small enterprises, especially those with innovative ideas, and introduce them to the financial and non-financial services offered by MSMEDA to these projects. Signing the MoU is part of the initiatives taken by the SMEDA to encourage graduates to establish their own entrepreneurial projects. According to Gamea, the MoU has a special importance, given that it's the first time of cooperation with Al-Azhar University for its local, regional, and international position, noting that it is the third oldest university in the world. Gamea pointed out to the role played by the university in offering successful solutions to the problems facing the communities in the various fields, through having 83 different colleges in diverse fields, spread across 22 governorates in the country. The university includes more than 350,000 students, in addition to foreign students from 100 different countries, estimated to be 23,000. Gamea stressed that the MoU will be implemented in all the university's branches, aiming to introduce young people to entrepreneurship through competitions, forums, meetings, as well as help them develop their skills in accordance to the requirements of the labour market. Moreover, she added that entrepreneurs will be chosen from the university's graduates or from students' with innovative ideas that are feasible to become successful projects, through holding competitions as well as choosing from the students' graduation projects. Those feasible projects could become real projects that contribute to serving and developing the community. Financial, technical, and marketing support will be given to owners of these projects. Some faculty members will be chosen, in coordination with the MSMEDA, to contribute to the process of preparing the trainers, directors, and advisers for the entrepreneurship programme. The MSMEDA will also provide innovative young people with business and technological incubators to qualify them to entirely manage their own projects and to successfully market them.
