World Bank to fund training for women entrepreneurs

The World Bank Group (WBG) said it has teamed up with two partners to provide access to startup financing and to e-commerce training for women entrepreneurs in the region, including Lebanon.

Access to financing will be provided through the ScaleX program which was launched by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the WBG’s private sector investment arm, and Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). ScaleX aims to incentivize accelerators to support startups led by women by providing performance-based payments of $25,000 for every woman entrepreneur that raises $1 million from investors in startup funding.

"We are launching the ScaleX program to help women entrepreneurs in emerging markets to access funding at a crucial stage to grow their businesses,” said Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Regional Vice President for the Middle East and Africa (MENA). “This is a win-win for accelerators, investors, and women entrepreneurs,” he said.

E-commerce training will be provided to an estimated 750 women entrepreneurs in the MENA region through a new partnership between the WBG and UPS.

“UPS will provide e-learning modules on different e-commerce topics to help women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises seeking to expand their businesses across borders,” the WBG said. UPS will also train local e-commerce advisors who provide coaching to businesses.

Besides Lebanon, the WBG-UPS partnership will work with entrepreneurs in Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia.

“By making e-commerce platforms more accessible, this partnership addresses a key constraint faced by women business leaders in reaching new markets,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank MENA Vice President. “E-commerce platforms create opportunities, and we must ensure these opportunities are open to women-owned businesses across the region,” he said.