Shell Egypt and Misr El-Kheir Foundation to provide entrepreneurship training for 500 young Egyptians

CAIRO, 2 December 2015 - Shell Egypt and Misr El-Kheir Foundation celebrate today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that includes the entrepreneurship training of 500 young Egyptians in the next 12 months.

Through the Shell Intilaaqah Egypt Programme, the MoU provides a cooperation framework between Shell Egypt and Misr El-Kheir Foundation to provide young Egyptians with the necessary training to help them start their own businesses. Moreover, the MoU involves providing funding to successful programme candidates to support their journey as entrepreneurs.

Aidan Murphy, Shell Egypt Country Chairman, said “the partnership with Misr El-Kheir Foundation (MEK) is a strategic and a successful addition to the Shell Intilaaqah’s Egypt portfolio. Earlier this year, we celebrated 10 years of success of Intilaaqah in Egypt, which represents an integral part of Shell Egypt’s social investment activities; supporting young entrepreneurs establish and maintain their businesses. We look forward to providing training and technical support for more young Egyptian entrepreneurs with our new partner, MEK”.

He added, “Our programme stands out in the way it supports youth by not only providing training and technical assistance to young entrepreneurs, but also by encouraging the integration of local content into the supply chain of large corporations; leading to business growth and creation of new job opportunities.”

Head of social solidarity scope in Misr El-Kheir, Bahaa al-Wassimy, said in today’s statement that the MoU signing marks a partnership between Misr El-Kheir and Shell to train 500 male and female young people on an entrepreneurship programme to build the capacities of young entrepreneurs and enhance their capabilities to be able to self-manage their projects in Cairo, Minya, Matrouh, Qena, Beni Sueif, and Assuit governorates in different fields. The trainees will be trained following a scientific approach, and small projects will be launched for those who successfully complete the training programme.

Wassimy also indicated that the programme aims at creating human cadres in the entrepreneurship field who are able to manage successful commercial, industrial and social projects to create new job opportunities for the youth, as well as enabling them to enter the job market with productive projects that have a social and developmental return. One of the aims of the programme is also to reduce the rate of failure in the management of small projects which will increase its success opportunities and enhance their expansion, leading to increased sustainability and a wider social impact.

He also added that Shell Egypt will offer an opportunity to the trainees who successfully complete the training programme to finance their projects after they submit a project proposal that creates new job opportunities for the society and addresses a social need and is also sustainable.

The partnership between Misr El-Kheir and Shell Egypt, Wassimy pointed out, reflects the belief of the two organisations in the importance of encouraging the youth to end unemployment through the management of small and micro projects through successful and effective means. He asserted that management is a skill that is based on science and the knowledge that will be gained by the trainees through this programme that attempts to face the challenges in front of the youth which usually lead to the failure of their projects. As a result, the programme will transform them into businessmen and businesswomen who are capable of contributing to the economic development of the country.

Also, Lamia Ashour, Social Investment Manager and the Intilaaqah Programme Head at Shell Egypt, highlighted that: “we trained around 900 young entrepreneurs in 2015 alone; 221 have existing businesses, with an equal split of females and males. I am proud to say that the programme has trained around 7,400 young Egyptians and has contributed to the development and creation of over 750 small businesses, to date, across 14 Egyptian governorates and cities.”

About Misr El-Khier Foundation:

Misr El-Khier Foundation is a non-profit organization registered with number 555/2007 according to Law 84/2002. The organization aims to serve, develop and empower the Egyptian society for a better livelihood everywhere in Egypt. The organization also aims at transforming the Egyptian people from living in the state of extreme poverty to subsistence, from subsistence to sufficiency, and from sufficiency to efficiency. This would enable humans to positively contribute to a self-growing, solidarity society through working in five development sectors including health, education, scientific research, social solidarity and other walks of life. Misr al-Khier foundation is based on scientific thinking in presenting developmental services accessed by more than seven million beneficiaries during eight years.

About Shell:

Shell companies in Egypt are wholly owned by the Royal Dutch Shell plc. Active in Egypt since 1911, Shell Egypt business today spans Upstream Oil and Gas Exploration & Production, lubricants production and marketing, and gas distribution.  Most of Shell’s upstream operations are located in the Western Desert.

Shell Intilaaqah Egypt – At a Glance

The Shell Intilaaqah Egypt programme was first initiated in 2004 by Shell Egypt as part of its corporate social responsibility, and has gained the support of British Council Egypt since 2006.  The programme targets young Egyptians, aged 18-35, to help them start their own businesses, providing proactive engagement with the society.  Youth who enroll to the Intilaaqah programme receive entrepreneurship training across different disciplines, including: SME market analysis, marketing, finance, and business management.

Geographical Spread

Shell Intilaaqah Egypt is spread out in 14 governorates and cities to date: Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan, Beni Suef, Cairo, Quena, Sharkia, Fayoum, Giza, Minya, Qalyubia, Matruh, Suez, and Sohag. 

A Wide Network of Development Partners

The British Council is the main partner. Other partners in Cairo include the Social Fund for Development (SFD), Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB), Kiromag Consultants and Human Development, Make Egypt, and Business Enterprise Support Tools Project (BEST). Our latest addition to the list of partners is Misr El-Kheir Foundation (MEK).

In Alexandria, there are two partners: the Egyptian Foundation for Women University Graduates, ASDAA’ Association, and the Egyptian Human Resources Development (EHRD).

Intilaaqah and LiveWire

The Shell Egypt Intilaaqah programme is an adoption of ‘LiveWIRE’; Shell International Youth Enterprise Programme.  LiveWIRE was first launched in the UK in 1982, and is now running in almost 17 countries worldwide. 

For more information about LiveWIRE, please visit: www.shell-livewire.org

For more information about Shell Intilaaqah Egypt, please visit: http://www.shell-intilaaqah.com

For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org

For media enquiries contact:

Ms. Sherine Nehad

Media Relations Manager

Shell Egypt

sherine.nehad@shell.com

+201271110420

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