Basil Rahmi, CEO of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), said that 45% of the total financing provided to micro and small enterprises was directed to women, during the nine years since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assumed office. His directives were particularly concerned with supporting women and activating their economic role in society. Rahmi also pointed out that the funds pumped by the agency to support women amounted to EGP 15.2bn, financing more than 865,000 micro and small enterprises, and providing over a million jobs. He noted that women's enterprises in Upper Egypt governorates received more than EGP 8bn of the total funding. Rahmi stressed the agency's keenness on participating in implementing the state's plans aimed at supporting and empowering women economically and socially, as well as enhancing their ability to contribute effectively to sustainable economic development, especially through the micro, small and medium enterprises sector. He said that the agency aims to support women's projects in various productive sectors, especially in rural areas, Upper Egypt, and the border governorates. It also aims to provide more technical support and training courses for women and girls to equip them with the necessary skills to start new projects, expand their existing projects, or qualify them for the labor market. This will help them break into the field of self-employment. Rahmi pointed out that the agency has activated means of cooperation with various state agencies to implement the directives of the political leadership by providing all aspects of support to Egyptian women, in order to create a new generation of businesswomen, by creating the environment for them to start new productive and profitable businesses that offer more decent and sustainable job opportunities. He explained that many of MSMEDA's services were devoted to supporting women entrepreneurs' access to financial and non-financial services from the phase of developing an idea to the phase of implementing the project. Additionally, more than 40,000 women and girls were trained to enhance entrepreneurship skills, in addition to working on their participation in local exhibitions organized by the agency or its partners. The percentage of women's participation in local exhibitions reached about 51% and 39% in foreign exhibitions, while they obtained 30% of the marketing services provided by the agency in cooperation with major commercial chains, and registration for small suppliers in government agencies. Rahmi explained that the state's trend towards empowering women is constantly renewed with the aim of contributing to sustainable development, by encouraging them to utilize their skills in establishing stable, productive and profitable micro and small enterprises.
