Incubator for Handicrafts in Upper Egypt (TwT)

TANMIA WA TATWEER: Egypt’s Entrepreneurship Development Project.

Description

The TWT Project aims to enhance and support the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt. With the aim to empower both existing and potential entrepreneurs, particularly youth and women, TwT aims to pave the way for innovation-driven businesses in three priority sectors among which handicrafts.

The objective of this project was to design and implement a pre-incubation and incubation services programme to identify and support knowledgeable entrepreneurs who can build, operate, and sustain start-ups from the ideation phase up to the early growth phase in the sector of handicrafts.

NSCE provided support to the incubator in the form of technical, administrative, managerial, business, marketing, and legal training, coaching, and mentoring programs that intended to formally register firms that are productive, fully operational, job creating, and are part of a vibrant local entrepreneurial economy in handicrafts sector, located in Upper Egypt, namely the governorates of Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Sohag, Assiut, Qena, Luxor, and Aswan.

The Final Beneficiaries were entrepreneurial youth between 18-40 (50% women) to establish, manage and operate successful innovation-driven businesses in handicrafts.

Services

  • Design and Development of an Incubation model
  • Promotion of the TwT Incubation Program
  • Awareness sessions on entrepreneurship development 
  • Idea Generation with entrepreneurs
  • Evaluations of applicants and personal interviews
  •  Selection of 72 start-ups for Pre-incubation Activities
  • Hybrid Pre-incubation services including trainings development and delivery and mentorship
  • Pre-incubation Activities
  • Entrepreneurship Training Development and Delivery
  • Internal pitching and selection for incubation program
  • Incubation Activities
  • Technical and business needs assessment
  • Hybrid Incubation Services and incubation towards startup creation: implementation of trainings, mentorship, legal support, business formalization  organization of networking events, exhibitions & financial fairs) 
  • Incubation towards startup creation
  • External pitching and final graduation
  • Post incubation follow-up