Khabar Khair (Only Good News) – Fatima Rashad

     Al-Amal Bank has implemented the EU-funded project ‘Support to youth’s entrepreneurship and financial inclusion’ in partnership with Silatech Foundation. and the Reyada Training Foundation. The project has been going on for three years in a row the bank is also fragmented, with branches in nine governments (Aden, Sana’a, Abs, Ibb, Hodeidah, Hajjah, Dhamar, and Hadramawt).

     Radwan Abdul-Jalil Al-Qubati (Manager of Al-Amal Bank, Aden) explained to ” Khabar Khair (Only Good News)- ” the aim of the project, saying: “The project aimed at supporting both young men and women with the knowledge and skill required to secure livelihoods by receiving training that enables them start income generating businesses. And providing financial support to those wishing to start new businesses or existing businesses, to create new employment opportunities for them.

     Radwan continues, saying: ” The target group of the project are young people who lost their projects due to the conflict that has been raging for years.”

   the grant offered requires  that the applicant should be a graduate of technical or vocational institutes or have a proof for that, or have received training in entrepreneurship from a training institution and have a certificate related to that, and has at least one year of relevant experience in the same business and have proof for that.

     If the young man or woman is a client of another financial institution, he should have finished paying the installments and have a good business register.

   Priority is given to projects in which employment is limited to a minimum of 4 employees, and the applicant’s activity should be within the scope of the branch, and he or one of his first-degree relatives should not have previously got the same grant, all in addition to the required documents, which are: A copy of a valid identity document, and a copy of the project proof documents (a rental contract, a professional licence, a business register, and a recommendation from the head of the neighborhoods ). These are the procedures required for getting youth grant offered by the European Union. “.

     For his part, Daoud Abdul Wase’ Al-Maqtari (project leader at Al-Amal Bank, Sheikh Othman branch) told Khabar Khair (Only Good News)-: “Grants for ‘Support to youth’s entrepreneurship project in its third phases were distributed , beneficiaries were given amounts of money, each according to his own buisness, the grants start from 200 to 700 thousand. Yemeni riyals.

     There are around 1,000 project grants in Aden, with an estimated value of 230 million Yemeni riyals, of which 107 million were provided to (414) males, and 123 million were provided to (556) females.

     As for the procedures occurring when providing grant, the amounts are tranferred into business owners’ bank accounts, and then their accounts are transferred to Supplier accounts from which they will buy their items for the activities. It is a condition of the grant aid that is that it should not be provided to business owners by cash , instead their projects needs of  materials and others should be bought to help them improve their businesses, or start new businesses for experienced people who are unable to start their own businesses due to financial problems.

Al-Maqtari continues, saying: “These grants were provided by the European Union after the youth were trained through the Riyada Foundation, and this training is a requirement for the grant. the beneficiary should first be trained and then the grant is paid.”

As for the beneficiaries experiences with the grant whether to start a new business or expanding a previous ones, they vary, Umm Moataz’s  had a successful experience with the grant , she told “Khabar Khair (Only Good News)” about her business , saying: “My business is about selling make up and incense, and I applied for the grant an year ago and I got it and benefited from it in terms of developing my business. Through the grant, I was able to expand and start another business beside the one I was working on previously, so I added selling clothes to my previous business, which is selling make up and incense.

      Umm Moataz was not the only one who got the grant. Others stressed that they benefited from the grant and its courses in terms of developing their own businesses, including Umm Aboudi, whose buisness was about making galabiya dressse. Regarding the financial grant, Umm Moataz said: “I benefited greatly from the training course that I attended, as I was able to understand the basics of business, managing finances, how I can I make a business case for my own business, all these are new basics that I have no idea about.

    And about her husband’s experience, Tahani Fouad said: “My husband applied for the union grant with the help of a friend, and his business  was a truck or the so-called (van) and now he owns two of them thanks to the grant he got.”

    As Al-Amal Bank implements the three phases of the European Union funded – project, there are other bodies implementing the same project within the livelihood projects supported by donors.