The Palestine Monetary Authority holds a workshop for female entrepreneurs about the sources of project finance

The Palestine Monetary Authority holds a workshop for female entrepreneurs about the sources of project finance

Wednesday, 22-6-2022

In cooperation with UN Women and the Palestinian Working woman Society (PWWSD), The Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) held, today in Nablus, a workshop for female entrepreneurs on sources of project finance. 100 women of entrepreneurs, project owners, owners of cooperative societies from the Northern Governorates and representatives of banks participated in this workshop.

The aim of this workshop is to raise the financial capabilities of women and enable them to access sources of financing, especially through “Estidama” Fund Programmes, in order to develop and enhance their projects and businesses.

Through his speech during the opening of the workshop, Mr. Eyad Zeitawi, the Acting Executive Director for Financial Stability Group of PMA, stressed the interest of the PMA to empower women, female project owners and female entrepreneurs economically and to develop their projects through its strategies and development programs.

Zeitawi added “the PMA, through “Estidama’ Fund, allocated a program to provide financing for micro-enterprises with zero interest, especially for the projects of women and female entrepreneurs. It also launched “Monshati” Platform which aims to help project owners to develop their technical, administrative and financial capabilities in managing their projects. On top of that, the PMA’s worked hard to develop the e-payment services in order to facilitate the financial transactions for these owners to be conducted in a fast, safe and at low-cost manner. 

Ms. Ma’ali Brqawi, the Projects Coordinator at PWWSD, pointed that the Society seeks, through its Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme, to promote the access of women owners of small enterprises to diverse sources of project finance appropriate to the size of the project, network with financial institutions and banks to take advantage of the available opportunities and tools in the field of projects support and pressure the decision-makers to pass laws that protect and support women in the labor market and in investment.

She also stressed that the Society is raising the awareness of women, building their capacities and networking them with relevant institutions, with the aim of increasing their economic involvement in the Palestinian markets from a rights-based perspective.

Mohanad Salous, the Financial Inclusion Division Chief at the PMA, gave a presentation about the PMA’s efforts to enhance the financial inclusion in Palestine and to deliver access to banking services to all segments of society. Most prominent of which are the e-payment services and their modern technological means of conducting financial transactions.

Mr. Mahmoud Barhoum from the Supervision and Inspection Department talked about the “Estidama” Fund and its financing programmes. This Fund includes a programme designed to providing financing for the micro-enterprises owned by females, youth and marginalized groups. He also explained the process for obtaining financing for projects through the Fund.

 Ms. Tasneem Dar Yousef, the Coordinator of “Monshati” Platform, presented the mechanisms to draw on the services that the platform provides regarding how to access sources of financing and how to benefit from financial, technical, administrative and legal advice, as well as from free e-training provided through this platform.

The workshop also covered a discussion between the participants and the banks’ representatives about the mechanisms, conditions and the guarantees that should apply in order to obtain financing through the Micro-Enterprises Programme of the “Estidama” Fund. The questions of the participants were also answered and solutions were provided to them in order to facilitate their access to sources of financing.

It is worth mentioning that this workshop is the fourth in a series of awareness-raising workshops in this campaign, which are implemented in cooperation between UN Women and PMA. These workshops aim to enhance the access of women to the financial inclusion services and promote their access to gender-sensitive banking and financial services, including the range of services that were provided as a response to the urgent needs arising from the COVID-19. This is part of the joint regional programme “Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work for Women in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine”, which was implemented by UN Women and the International Labour Organization, and with funding from the Government of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).