20 startups, owned by the youth or Egyptian women, have been selected by Google and USAID, alongside 50 business advisors for the pilot phase of the project
Google and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a new mentorship program to train and mentor hundreds of Egyptian women and youth business owners, as well as business advisors, in 2021.
The program will focus on digital skills and online marketing, to help entrepreneurs build and promote their online brands and will equip business advisors with the skills to better support startups.
The COVID-19 pandemic amplified the importance of e-commerce and of helping businesses survive and thrive, highlighted an official US embassy statement, noting that programs that support entrepreneurship, are even more vital.
20 startups, owned by the youth or Egyptian women, have been selected by Google and USAID, alongside 50 business advisors for the pilot phase of the project.
The participants have all contributed to building Egypt’s entrepreneurship ecosystem through previous participation in USAID projects and are part of Egypt’s leading networks — established by USAID — including the Women’s Entrepreneurship Network, the Youth Entrepreneurship Network, and Tiye Angels, which is Egypt’s first women’s angel investment network, wrote the statement.
It will include tailored mentoring and consultation with courses offered through Google’s respected “Maharat min Google” (“Skills from Google”) e-learning platform, and free courses, tools, and training on digital marketing in Arabic to students, educators, job seekers, and businesses.
The program is part of Google’s regional “Grow Stronger with Google” initiative, which U.S. Ambassador Jonathan R. Cohen participated in the launch event in October 2020.
The initiative is focused on accelerating the pace of economic recovery in the region by helping one million businesses and individuals in MENA learn digital skills and grow their businesses by the end of 2021.
