Consulting and Counseling for SMEs

Description

In Ramallah, Palestinian Territories, from 1997 to 2013, the DEG (KfW Group) financed the Business Start-Up Program:

The Business Start-Up Program was comprised of a credit fund for on-lending by local partner banks of USD 7.3 million, a credit guarantee fund of USD 0.92 million and a comprehensive technical assistance package for the partner banks (comprising management consultancy and training and coaching of SME staff on manager and officer level, designed the marketing and promotion strategy of the program, member of the loan committee of partner banks.

In cooperation with DEG, a German Development Bank owned by the German State, NSCE has provided consultancy services for the Business Start-up Program, which is funded by the German Government and is part of the official German development cooperation scheme.

The Business Start-up Program promotes business start-ups and expansions for small and medium sized enterprises of the private sector in the Palestinian Territories. The aim of the component “Consulting and Counseling for SMEs” was to assess the damage of the current political situation on the businesses promoted by the program through business diagnostic field visits and consulting services for different enterprises that have been promoted by the program and subsequently to ensure as much as possible the sustainability of the businesses and the program’s loan portfolio.

Some businesses suffered from liquidity problems because of a decrease in payment discipline by their clients. The economic hardships and the increasing unemployment resulted in a decrease of purchasing power and thus in lower demand. In some cases these factors caused serious negative impact on the development of the enterprises and consequently on the ability to repay the loan, ultimately on the sustainability of the Program’s loan portfolio.

Services

• Training Needs Verification Design and Development of the Workshop Content, Materials and Methods
• A report of the workshop containing written guidelines for SME-consultants for their assignment
• Workshop delivery
• Delivery of high quality and satisfactory training services to GES consultants.
• Coaching/Evaluation