Financing is the major challenge to youth entrepreneurship in Lebanon || Newspapers (Arabic)

Al Hayat newspaper published a report on the difficulties that young Lebanese youth entrepreneurs face and the activities of the “Bader” programme which seek to provide opportunities for young people through collaboration with Lebanese business people who believe in private entrepreneurship as a key vehicle for healthy economic growth.

The main problem that young people face is in financing their businesses given their scarce resources and the absence of tangible governmental support to such initiatives.  In addition, political instability and insecurity is a major challenge to emerging businesses coupled with limited professional skills and poor public relations.  All these factors limit the scope for the development of an entrepreneurship culture in Lebanon.

Despite the above, and according to Bader’s project’s manager, Joelle Yazbeck, her group provides several solutions to enable young people to succeed in their businesses through its collaboration with more than 30 established enterprises.  These include, according to Yazbeck, a) education and awareness on the principles of private entrepreneurship through workshop and university scholarship, b) collaboration and networking between young entrepreneurs and well established business people in Lebanon and abroad; and c) financing through Bader’s investment fund and its Lebanese business network which is investing in emerging business and facilitating access to those bank loans which have terms that are adequate for small and medium enterprises.

Source: Al-Hayat 25 March 2013