The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) injected EGP 5.3bn in 2018 to fund 247,000 small and micro projects, providing 395,000 jobs. According to a report issued by the agency, about EGP 2.27bn were allocated to fund about 16,900 small projects, providing 49,100 jobs, while EGP 3bn were allocated to fund 229,700 micro projects, granting 346,100 jobs. The report pointed out that about EGP 1.3bn were injected to fund 12,900 small projects through intermediaries handled by the agency, which granted about 27,500 jobs. The agency injected about EGP 970m to directly finance 4,041 projects, offering 21,500 jobs. "The fund has contributed with EGP 33.3m for infrastructure, community development, and training projects, which contributed to creating about 182,000 jobs. About 24,300m projects were injected into labour-intensive infrastructure projects, providing about 116,100 jobs, in addition to EGP 5m for training and operations," the agency stated. The report also pointed out that Upper Egypt received 50% of the funding allocated for the small and micro projects in 2018, then Lower Egypt comes next with 33%, the urban region with 12%, and the border region with 5%. The commercial sector has obtained 58% of the funding provided by the agency in 2018, while the service sector obtained 16%, which was the same percentage as the livestock sector, compared to 8% of the industrial sector, and 2% for the free professions, according to the MSMEDA. Furthermore, the MSMEDA pointed out that 53% of project owners who received the funding in 2018 were men, while 47% were women. According to the MSMEDA, the age group 40-50 has received 24% of the funding provided to small and micro projects, and the age group up to 30 years received 22%, while the 30-35 age group received 16%, and individuals over 50 years of age received 18% of the total funding. The new projects obtained 47.7% of the funding allocated by MSMEDA in 2018, worth EGP 1.084bn, compared to 52.3% for projects worth EGP 1.186bn. New projects have also represented 48% of the total number of small projects funded by the agency in 2018, a total of 8,132 projects, compared to 52% for existing projects, with a total number of 8,782.
