Financial Investment and Sector Co-operation (FISC) Rural Component Project

Technical Assistance to SMEs

Description

Supporting the establishment and utilisation of different credit lines at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) over the last two decades, the biggest EU contribution in this regard was the Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) of EUR 100 million which supported the development of small and medium–scale enterprises in the agricultural sector through the establishment of a credit line that facilitated the access to finance for private entrepreneurs. Taking into account the success of ASDP, the EU decided to establish the Financial Investment and Sector Co-operation (FISC) Rural Component Project (EUR 16 million) to provide additional financial and technical assistance to SMEs in the fields of input supply, post-harvest activities and marketing.

The project aims at deepening the clientele of ASDP, as well as widening the fields of intervention. Its major activities are to:

  • Design and implement training programs for bankers and credit officers
  • Organize and support awareness and promotion campaigns towards the specific target groups
  • Develop and monitor loan-processing procedures.

The project’s objective is to assist in the establishment of cooperatives guarantee funds at district and governorate levels, establishing the links with micro-finance schemes and supporting cash flow based lending to rural women associations to ensure a smooth implementation of lending activities in the rural/ agricultural sector. The expected results for the FISC Rural are to support institutional building for small-scale entrepreneurs, co-operatives and associations, for the purpose of enabling them to screen and process loan demands from their members, deposit single loan applications under the name of the respective organization, channel the loan to end-users and take charge of repayment.

Services

  • Provision of human resources development services;
  • Organizational and institutional development to farmers’ organizations, NGOs and outreach network;
  • Training;
  • Participatory development process;
  • Gender and development issues;
  • Monitoring.