Upcoming JEDCO support programmes target home businesses, SMEs

AMMAN — The Jordanian Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) on Monday launched the “My Homemade Work” programme and a bundle of three small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing programmes worth JD2.6 million.

During the launch event, Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri said in his opening speech that the corporation will start receiving applications for My Homemade Work on January 2, 2020.

“This is perhaps one of the programmes I am most excited for, as I have been waiting for its financing for a long time,” he said.

My Homemade Work allows anyone to make food, create products such as clothing and gifts, or offer other services from the comfort of their home, according to a presentation shown at the launch.

The financing for this programme will cover training for the applicants, funding for their projects and marketing for their products or services online.

At the event, JEDCO CEO Bashar Al Zoubi outlined the first aspect of the SME-financing bundle, a programme titled “Transforming Invention Models into Commercial Projects”, which will help entrepreneurs “bring their inventions to life” and make a profit from them.

“The programme will, in addition to financing the building of the invention, help register it at the ministry and then introduce it to the public,” he added.

The programme starts receiving applications as of February and has a budget of JD400,000 in grants that will be distributed evenly to 10 projects.

The second programme, also receiving applications as of February, titled "Supporting Industrial SMEs to Export for the First Time”, targets local SMEs operating in the industrial sector in all governorates on the condition that they have not exported during the past three years and do not have high added value.

Through this programme, financial support will be provided to 30 industrial SMEs in the form of grants, with a ceiling of JD40,000 for each company and a financing rate of 70 per cent of the total project cost. The total budget of the programme is JD1.2 million.

The third programme, "Supporting Service SMEs to Export", aims to support 40 local SMEs operating in the sectors of tourism and hospitality, administration, financial and legal consulting, healthcare, energy, engineering, architecture services and information technology. Applications for this programme will start in January.

Supporting Service SMEs to Export will offer financial and technical grants to build enterprises’ administrative and production capacities to enhance exports. The value of each grant does not exceed JD25,000, 40 per cent of which will go to support administrative capabilities. The maximum contribution to each project is 50 per cent of its total budget.

Hammouri stressed that supporting economic and industrial sectors and activities is part of His Majesty King Abdullah's directives to the government aimed at expanding the base of industrial exporters, increasing the rate of exports and providing job opportunities.

He noted that previous programmes were found to have “exceeded their targets and achieved important milestones in terms of increasing the rate of exports and creating job opportunities”.