The Nilepreneurs Initiative — one of the initiatives of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) — announced the launch of four new courses for business incubators in various fields to support start-up owners. These courses cover technology, digital transformation, climate change technology, local manufacturing, and the furniture industry, in addition to equality programmes for gender and women's economic empowerment within the framework of contributing to achieving the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Egypt's 2030 Vision. The launch of the four incubation cycles under the auspices of the Housing and Development Bank, the Egyptian Export Development Bank, the Suez Canal Bank, and QNB-Al-Ahly Bank to cover a number of different economic fields with the aim of supporting emerging and small projects and exploiting the latent energies of innovative youths. This would contribute to the establishment of new projects, the deepening of industry, and creating job opportunities in a way that contributes to increasing economic growth and achieving sustainable development. Mohamed Abbas — Assistant Executive Director of the Nilepreneurs Initiative for Entrepreneurship — said that the launch of four new courses to incubate start-up companies, entrepreneurs, and innovative ideas at once for the first time reflects the initiative's great interest in achieving the SDGs and working to create added value for emerging, micro, and small projects in the national economy. He added that these programmes took into account the diversity in the stages and fields, as one of the programmes specialises in the pre-incubation stage with the aim of sponsoring innovative ideas, crystallising them, and qualifying them for the next stages of the incubation programmes. These stages aim to incubate and assist projects in the post-establishment stage and provide innovative solutions to them. These programs were not limited to covering technological areas only that focus on providing technological solutions and electronic applications for projects, but also cover some areas of industry in a way that supports local manufacturing, and work to develop it and increase its competitiveness and export capacity. Abbas explained that the five of the SDGs were taken into account when designing these programmes, which are women's economic empowerment; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation, and infrastructure; responsible consumption and production; and climate action. He also pointed out that the focus was also on more specific goals so that each business incubator directs specialised industrial sectors and technological applications in specific fields in order to help spread the culture of sustainable development and create new generations of entrepreneurs and emerging companies in Egypt that work to support the Egyptian society and economy with new products and innovative ideas. Furthermore, he explained that the Nilepreneurs Initiative's business incubator programmes support two stages of establishing start-up companies, the first of which is the pre-incubation programme that is sponsored by the Egyptian Export Development Bank, which aims to support innovators in the first stage of starting the establishment of their companies and providing them with technical support and administrators needed to crystallise their ideas and turn them into an executable prototype. The second round of the pre-incubation programme, he said, has been allocated to comply with the fifth SDG, which is to empower women economically, as the programme is sponsored by the Egyptian Export Development Bank and focuses on supporting the ideas of women and young women and helping them establish their own companies and projects in the technological field. It also aims to facilitate the access of female entrepreneurs to financing, achieve gender equality, and bridge the technological gap in the market, provided that the application is submitted through the following link: https://bit.ly/3PIw4FP Additionally, Abbas said that the Technology Applications Incubator, 'LaunchSaaS' — which is sponsored by the Suez Canal Bank — will focus in its fourth session on providing support to emerging companies that provide technical solutions and provide a more sustainable future for projects, taking into account the environmental, social, governance, fintech, and digital transformation dimensions. You can apply for one of these ideas through the following link: https://bit.ly/3znhD4K As for the industrial sectors, the initiative — through the Engineering Business Incubator that is sponsored by the Housing and Development Bank in its fourth session — is devoted to climate change technology and local manufacturing of products with the aim of promoting sustainable industries and encouraging investment in scientific research, innovation, and infrastructure in order to confront the risks of climate change. It can be applied to through: https://bit.ly/3v6zyKB As for those with creative ideas and talents in the field of design, the fourth session of the Creative Design Incubator that is sponsored by QNB Al Ahli Bank provides its support to start-ups working in the field of furniture, home décor, or handicrafts based on recycled and environmentally friendly materials, or traditional crafts and industries. For companies working in any of these fields, apply through: https://bit.ly/3PC5oXy Abbas explained that the application for any of these programmes will be available for a month and a half until the end of next August through the official website of the Nilepreneurs Initiative https://np.eg/.
