BUSINESSMED, represented by its General Secretary, Jihen Boutiba, participated in the EBSOMED EU Med Roadshow “Scaling Up Finance for Inclusive Development in the Southern Neighbourhood”, organized by CAWTAR on June 18-19, 2019 in Tunis.

During her intervention Mrs Boutiba, who is also the Director of the EBSOMED project, said: “I am convinced that the recommendations elaborated during these two days of work will enrich the discussions and the debate around inclusive finance that can also guarantee better access to financing for marginalized women and young entrepreneurs. EBSOMED is already building the foundations for a new model of triangular economic cooperation, through the establishment of new partnerships with Sub-Saharan African Countries, based on the European External Investment Plan.”

During these two days, speakers, moderators, and participants discussed issues of access to finance, especially for SMEs and innovative micro-enterprises mostly ones launched by young and women entrepreneurs, but also new sources of finances such as crowdfunding or micro-credit...

The objective of the event was to highlight the main gaps (gender/sector/ size ...), challenges and obstacles such as lack of liquidity, working capital, adapted financial products, access to credit financial intermediary... Without forgetting the low level of education and financial illiteracy.

CAWTAR Executive Director, Soukeina Bouraoui, opened the day by welcoming the presents and announcing the participation of about 600 economic enterprises from 9 countries in this conference which, at the end of the two days, will be crowned with important recommendations in the field of access to finance.

Besides, the Tunisian Minister of Trade, Omar El Béhi, pointed out that small businesses employing less than 5 people face great difficulties in obtaining credit and are unable to continue their activity, calling for the need to find solutions to solve the problems of these companies.

For her part, the Tunisian Minister of Women, Family, Children and Seniors, Naziha Laabidi, stressed the importance of the EBSOMED project, which should encourage young people to launch new projects and review the Ministry's programmes to encourage women to set up their businesses.