Franchise Egypt Expo 2014 has been inaugurated today by the Secretary General of Social Fund for Development. The one-day event is organised by the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) in coordination with SFD and under the sponsorship of Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour – Egyptian Minister of Trade, Industry and SMEs.
It comes as part of EJB’s mission to promote entrepreneurship and create new job opportunities.
The event aims to increase awareness about the rate of success of franchising business model compared to normal startups, create new jobs in the market, establish one stop shop to provide consultancy services and match making, to both franchisor and franchisee.
In parallel to the expo matchmaking meetings between potential franchisees and franchisors, workshops on franchising procedures, access to finance, legalities shall take place featuring high profile international consultants in the franchise business.
From her part, Soha Soliman said SFD is keen to continue its cooperation with the EJBA along with other institutions working on raising awareness of the importance of the franchise system.
The Egyptian official further referred that the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is the key financier of the franchising sector support programme in Egypt. AfDB has secured a line of credit at value of US$40 million to promote franchising in Egypt as an effective business strategy for provide sector development and SME growth, Soliman elaborated.
The Franchising Sector Support Programme (FSSP) seeks to promote franchising in Egypt as an effective business strategy for private sector development and SME growth. The proposed FSSP will encourage the establishment and expansion of the local franchising concept, resulting in entrepreneurship development, economic growth, and job creation. The medium-term objective of the FSSP will be to establish solid local financial instruments and collaborative structures that address the current gaps in the franchising market.
