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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
