RiseUp & Facebook Ramp Up Joint-Effort to Help Egyptian SMEs Through Economic Downturn

Riseup has announced that their ‘Boost with Facebook’ initiative - held in collaboration with the social media giant, and designed to equip Egyptian SMEs with necessary digital skills - will be now expanding to include more multi-faceted support for startups in the midst of the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. 

The initiative will now provide online learning sessions curated for a variety of small and medium businesses to develop their marketing efforts and learn how to tackle the myriad of challenges that plague startups far and wide. These sessions will be provided on a new online service that’ll host one-on-one mentorship and coaching sessions.

“This year has been a difficult time for businesses around the world and we understand just how fragile the business ecosystem can be for SMBs and startups,” says Abdelhameed Sharara, CEO of RiseUp. “If we wish to truly deliver impact, we need to be resilient enough to adapt to turbulent situations. Accordingly, we have adapted our programme to include modules that specifically address the need to stay in touch with and retain clients during the pandemic, in addition to revisiting the design and delivery of the programme to make it suitable for virtual delivery.”

Since its launch in November 2019, the programme has so far trained 400 Egyptian SMEs and was devised between Facebook, RiseUp and several Egyptian government institutions. The programme was inaugurated by H.E. Sahar Nasr, former Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, as part of notable initiatives the government has spearheaded to bolster the local ecosystem.

Ramez Shehadi, Managing Director for MENA at Facebook, commented, “We know that small and medium businesses are experiencing unexpected challenges during the outbreak of COVID-19 and we’re committed to providing as much support as possible. We have an important role to provide the necessary digital skills for startups and SMBs to survive, recover and pivot online.” 

The ‘Boost with Facebook’ online programme is expected to launch July 7th, and is setting a milestone of training and supporting over 2,000 SMEs throughout 2020.