As part of Egypt’s COVID-19 response and rebuild strategy, Ministry of Planning recently launched a number of initiatives to protect small businesses, the private sector and provide job opportunities for the youth to decrease unemployment rates. Following the number of measures that were implemented to contain the virus, Egypt’s unemployment rate increased to 9.2% since the end of March until the end of April, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). More than 90 percent of all businesses in Egypt are small businesses, employing more than half of Egypt’s workforce, which are currently struggling to weather through financially due to dwindling sales. Unemployment costs can reach more than $40 billion a year for the region, according to International Finance Corporation (IFC), and enhancing the private sector as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been regarded as key factors in helping create new jobs and keeping the economy going amid the crisis. Protecting small businesses During a virtual panel organised by the International Council for Small Business, titled “Entrepreneurship, SMEs, and Micro-Projects’ Future in the Post-COVID-19 Phase,” Minister Hala El Said highlighted that a new MSMEs…
Protecting Small Businesses and Reducing Unemployment: Egypt’s COVID-19 Recovery Efforts
May 16, 2020
