Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the closures and reduced working hours recommended to curb the spread of the virus. To better understand the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs, IOM Iraq conducted a survey with 456 enterprises active in different sectors in urban areas of Iraq […]
Tag Archives | Small Businesses
Tags: coronavirus, covid19, Enterprise Development Fund (EDF), featured, International Organization for Migration (IOM), mn, MSMEs, Small Businesses, SMEs
Lenders Rip Off Small Iraqi Businesses
By Editor on 30th September 2015 in Investment, Iraq Banking & Finance News, Iraq Industry & Trade News
By Omar al-Jaffal for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. In order to expand his men's shoe business, Mohammed Jizani had to borrow $100,000 from a loan shark. As is common in such cases, he was forced to pay the lender $4,000 […]
Tags: Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), featured, Iraqi Company for Financing Small and Medium Enterprises, micro- small- and medium-sized enterprises, MSMEs, Small Businesses, SMEs
Iraqi Banks Increase Funding for SMEs
By John Lee. The Iraqi private banks association has announced an increase of half-a-trillion Iraqi dinars in funding to enhance the role of the private sector and the developmentof small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to increase job opportunities. According to the report from Shafaaq, this brings the funding available to 1.5 trillion Iraqi dinars […]
Supporting Entrepreneurship in Iraq – The Challenge of Translating Mandates to Action
By Keyzom on 3rd June 2011 in Employment, Investment, Iraq Banking & Finance News, Iraq Education and Training News, Keyzom Ngodup
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Most development agendas for Iraq putatively support entrepreneurship and the need to support private sector development through its focus on the growing number of unemployed youth in the country. UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) recently […]
Tags: DFID, Entrepreneurship, Ideas sYnergy, Islamic Finance, Small Businesses, Status of Women, Venture Capital, Women, Youth
Transforming NGO Microfinance Institutions to Non Bank Financial Institutions
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. For a long time now, the discussion continues within different circles and corridors in Iraq, on whether microfinance institutions (MFIs) can operate as NGOs and continue providing micro-loans to low-income entrepreneurs who lack access to finance […]
Tags: Financing, Ideas sYnergy, Iraq, MSMEs, Non Bank Financial Institutions, Small Businesses, Transformation
Unlikely MSME Financiers Provide Islamic Microfinance for the Poor
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Six NGO-microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide Islamic micro-financing Al-Murabaha to over 7,000 micro-enterprises, 14% of them women-owned small businesses across Anbar, Kirkuk, Ninewa, and Tikrit. Al-Takadum in Al-Anbar pioneered micro-financing based on Islamic principles in 2007 and […]
Tags: Financing, Ideas sYnergy, Islamic Finance, Microfinance, MSMEs, National Shari'a Board, Small Businesses
The Struggles of Small Businesses – The Broken Links
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Much gets written about the struggles of small businesses in Iraq. With 36 private banks in Iraq, and high interest from the Government of Iraq to support MSMEs, especially in terms of access to finance, we […]