Chief Executive Officer of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) Bassel Rahmy together with Giza Governor General Ahmed Rashid signed two contracts under the Unplanned Areas Upgrading and Employment Enhancement Programme (UAUEEP) in Cairo and Giza governorates. The UAUEEP is funded by a grant delegated to the French Development Agency (AFD) through the European Union (EU). Signing of both contracts came following the completion of UAUEEP Phase 1 in many areas deprived of basic infrastructure in Cairo and Giza. Representatives of AFD, MSMEDA and Giza Governorate attended the ceremony of signing the two contracts. "Strategic partnership is continuously established between MSMEDA and the different international donor agencies," CEO of MSMEDA said. "Such partnership is translated into cooperation prospects to help attain our common Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that actually align with Egypt Vision 2023," Rahmy indicated. Rahmy also lauded the fruitful MSMEDA-AFD cooperation on implementing UAUEEP in Cairo and Giza to install the basic infrastructure, create such an environment that is appropriate to the establishment of small productive enterprises that generate stable jobs for the inhabitants of both governorates. This phase, the CEO of MSMEDA added, will complete the development of both Mit Uqba area at EGP 12m and Ard El Lewa area at EGP 10m. He reiterated that development activities would include renovation of schools, pavement of roads, and installation of lamp posts. Rahmy explained that these two projects would create 14 thousand daily job opportunities for casual workers and benefit around 50 thousand inhabitants. He indicated that these kinds of activities depend on the labour-intensive method to secure more daily jobs for casual labour. Meanwhile, Giza Governor General Ahmed Rashid indicated that the different entities of the Government collaborate for implementing the directives of the political leadership to create a better living standard for the citizens. Rashid explained that Giza Governorate and MSMEDA work together to introduce an environment favourable to the encouragement of small enterprises and fulfilment of the needs of inhabitants of these areas. Giza Governor said that MSMEDA, from July 2014 until March 2023, financed 55,600 micro and small enterprises at a total of EGP 1.9bn. This finance, he reiterated, have resulted in the creation of 81,300 job opportunities for Giza inhabitants. Rashid added MSMEDA has provided EGP 331.9m for executing community infrastructure projects that altogether generated more than 2 million daily jobs for casual workers in the governorate.
