By : Bakinam Khaled – Weal Elhoseny
As part of their joint efforts to help small and micro business (SMB) owners make confident, informed decisions to grow their businesses, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Visa have announced the launch of a bespoke and dedicated business skills platform for the Egyptian market [MJ1] based on [MMGG2] Visa’s global Practical Business Skills digital platform that delivers free educational resources covering business skills and financial literacy training.
This comes as part of the partnership between ITIDA and Visa aimed at supporting Egyptian FinTech startups and entrepreneurs by providing them the tools that can help them in keeping their businesses afloat and to identify opportunities for potential growth amidst the situation.
One of the key areas of the partnership includes the new Practical Business Skills website which will be available in Arabic and English. ITIDA and Visa are jointly launching this website in Egypt over 5 different stages over the next few weeks. During each stage ITIDA and Visa experts will conduct 4 virtual training webinars, and Egyptian entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to learn directly from experts, discuss and review what they learned and get themselves certified. To join this training that will start mid of December.
Earlier this year, Visa in cooperation with ITIDA jointly held “Calculators for Your Innovation” - the first virtual training for a group of entrepreneurs in April to train them on how to use a selection of business calculators that guide businesses in starting, managing and expanding a business including aspects like building and adapting budgets, calculating profit vs loss and other important business determiners. The training was conducted by Hugh Norton Senior Director for Social Impact at Visa and was attended by 80 entrepreneurs from across Egypt.
“SMBs are the backbone of our economy. It is crucial to empower SMB-owners with knowledge, skills, and access to services that support them in rebuilding -or starting- stronger, digitally enabled businesses,” explains Malak El Baba, Country Manager for Egypt at Visa. ”Our partnership with ITIDA and through that bringing the Practical Business Skills platform to their members is part of Visa’s commitment to provide resources and knowledge to help drive inclusive, sustainable and equitable economic growth for entrepreneurs, businesses and communities here in Egypt and around the world.”
“One of our mandates is to build the capacities of the Egyptian ICT companies and support small businesses and technology startups to help them grow and further become globally competitive,” commented Amr Mahfouz, CEO of ITIDA. ”As ITIDA adopts a progressive approach, and adheres to the public-private partnership model, we’re joining forces with several global tech players including VISA to boost local startup businesses, ensure our young talents have the required digital and business skills and help our entrepreneurs leap forward.”
SMBs account for more than 90% of global businesses and are the source of 50% to 60% of global employment.[1] With the Covid-19 pandemic having passed the one year mark, the SMB community needs support to continue adapting, as their contribution to their communities and the global economy cannot be overstated.
Practical Business Skills[MJ3] is built on Visa’s global expertise in financial education and offers growth-minded entrepreneurs tools to help start, manage and expand a business. With more than 50 online learning modules, the platform addresses the needs at various stages of the business lifecycles Starting a business, with tools for prospective entrepreneurs to understand and evaluate the steps involved in opening, financing, running and marketing a company.
Managing a business, with information on day-to-day business management, including templates for financial and cash flows analysis, and resources to promote sales and Building and growing, with tactics on how to drive businesses into a more profitable long-term success.
Practical Business Skills offers SMBs access to a video library with lessons and to resources businesses can easily download and customize, such as calculators to manage cash flows or determine the cost-benefits of a taking a loan. All of those material will be available in Arabic on EgyptInnovate Platform, the ecosystem platform of innovation in Egypt during the coming weeks.
Visa is committed to providing resources that enable SMBs to grow and bounce back from COVID-19. As a company that enables digital payments at nearly 70 million merchant locations around the world, Visa’s priority is to help SMBs thrive at every step.
