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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 30 October 2019:
The implementing agency for five of the EU’s flagship diversification projects in Libya, Expertise France, celebrated the excellent evaluation it received despite Libya’s instability.
Expertise France said that since the start of the EU-funded Support to Libya for Economic Integration, Diversification and Sustainable Development (SLEIDSE) project in 2016 aimed at developing entrepreneurship in Libya, Expertise France has been committed on the ground with a European, Libyan and Tunisian team.
It said that it has developed a special capacity to forge stable partnerships with beneficiary institutions throughout the country and at all territorial levels. Today, with some thirty agents, it says that it is one of the most capable agencies in effectively supporting the diversification of the Libyan economy.
SLEIDSE says that its project focuses on small business development and raising awareness of the benefits of entrepreneurship. While the project received an excellent mid-term evaluation despite the country’s instability, Expertise France says that it was able to capitalize on these good results to obtain additional projects on related topics.
Expertise France says that today, the Libya team based in Tunis manages 5 projects:
As mentioned earlier, SLEIDSE was the initial flagship project launched in 2016. It is financed by the European Union, with a budget of € 8.2 million and focused on businesses and entrepreneurs. The project also receives additional funding from the MFA Crisis Centre.
The European Union for the Private Sector in Libya (EU4PSL) project is also funded by the European Union and is a € 7 million project that started in 2019. This project aims to strengthen the capacity of Libya’s economic and financial administrations, civil society organizations, and improve access to finance.
The STREAM project is a € 2 million project funded by the UK. As implementer, Expertise France has been creating since 2018 a start-up incubator integrating an accelerator and a fab lab in Tripoli through STREAM since 2018. The project is carried out in partnership with Libya’s state-controlled Libyana Mobile Phone company, Libya’s largest telephone operator.
The Microfinance project, Namaa Tamweel, a project funded by the UK with €2 million, is a collaboration between Expertise France and Libya’s private sector bank, Assaray bank (ATIB) This project is helping create the infrastructure to offer microfinance to small entrepreneurs.
Finally, Expertise France is in charge of strengthening the capacities and skills of young Libyans (18-24 years old) in close collaboration with the General Authority of Youth and Sports through a € 500,000, 8-months project funded by the UNICEF.
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