By Reem Tombokti.
Tripoli, 3 June 2013:
Every business idea needs a tight business plan but that is not enough. The Committee of . . .[restrict]Women Support to Participate in Decision-Making has found a way to also provide funding for Libya’s entrepreneurial women.
The committee, along with Benghazi Centre for Entrepreneurship is organising a competition from which 15 winners will not only learn to refine their business plans but will be given funding to turn them into reality.
The fortunate 15 will be chosen from a short-list of 25, who will all be given ten days training to help them prepare the project for presentation to the judges.
The committee will link the winners with Libyan businessmen, banks and some government authorities which have committed to fund the projects and some of whom will be on the judging panel.
“The judges will only be given the business ideas without the candidates’ names, in order to achieve integrity and fairness,” Amal Al-Shairy, head of the Committee of Economical Representation in the Committee of Women Support to Participate in Decision Making, told the Libya Herald.
“We will help the winners in all the necessary procedures towards realising their projects,” added Sahiry. “Any Libyan women aged between 20 to 50 can apply. At the moment the competition will target women in eastern Libya from Ajdabiyah to Tobruk. In the future, however, we are planning to take the experience to the southern and western parts of the country,” she continued.
Female entrepreneurs can apply on the committee’s website until the 10 June. The short-listed projects will be announced on three days later and the training will begin on 15 June.
Benghazi Centre for Entrepreneurship is also joining in this contest, offering any young Libyans aged 15 to 35 a chance to apply and maybe win a funding opportunity.
The initiative is sponsored by the Dutch NGO, Spark which aims to develop higher education and entrepreneurship opportunities in post-conflict regions across the globe.
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