New "business incubator" in Rabat encourages female entrepreneurs

2009-07-19

To boost women's role in the economy, Morocco is offering young female innovators financial and technical support at a new business development centre.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 19/07/09

[Siham Ali] Moroccan Family and Solidarity Minister Nouzha Skelli cuts the ribbon for the new women's business centre in Rabat.

Aspiring businesswomen in the Moroccan capital region have a new resource at their disposal.

Established last week by the Association des Femmes Chefs d’Entreprise du Maroc (AFEM, Moroccan Businesswomen's Association), the new "business incubator" promotes entrepreneurship among women in the Rabat region.

The institution, with an initial budget of 1.1 million dirhams, will provide technical and financial support to young women with business ideas. The women whose programmes are selected by committee will be given office space and career mentoring over the first two critical years.

Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday (July 16th), project co-ordinator and honorary AFEM president Saloua Kerkri Belkziz said that the aim of the partnership is to produce self-sustaining enterprises at the end of the sponsorship period.

"Fewer than 20% of business jobs are held by women," she said, "and fewer than 12% of new businesses are started up by women".

As a result, Belkziz concluded, the incubator could play an important role in helping women enter the Moroccan business world through their own projects.

Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity Nouzha Skelli, who presided over the launch ceremony, hailed the initiative and said that encouragement should be given to all measures aimed at boosting women's presence in the economy.

Despite the disparities that still persist, the minister said, there are more women on the job market than ever before.

"They make a significant contribution to the generation of business wealth," Skelli added.

The success of the first incubator in Casablanca in 2006 made the Rabat launch possible, the AFEM said. Many women in Morocco's economic capital have received training and support as a result of the initiative.

The Spanish International Co-operation Agency, which provides funding for the endeavour, has twice renewed its financial and logistical assistance after evaluating the project.

The Casablanca office has supported 41 businesses and encouraged the creation of 27 others. A wide range of projects were selected; the five most recent focus on different areas, such as professional training, foreign investor relations, fashion design and manufacturing, childcare and web design.

Beneficiaries say the incubator was very useful to them. One such woman is Fatima El Hassni, who set up a training office. She said she succeeded in large part thanks to the technical support she received from the AFEM project, which "enables people with ideas to have faith in themselves".

It is essential to support women's entrepreneurship in a formal manner, sociologist Jamila Berdai tells Magharebia, since many female heads of household are already working in the informal sector and need structure in order to prosper.

"The state must focus on education and fostering a spirit of enterprise among both women and men," Berdai added.