Egypt – Rural Cottage Industries Development Project

Providing Loans and Business Training Services to Female Entrepeneurs

From 1994-98, ACDI/VOCA’s Rural Cottage Industries Development Project (RCID)—a Farmer-to-Farmer-inspired project—provided loans and business training services to women entrepreneurs in the New Lands of Egypt to increase their participation in economic development. ACDI/VOCA conducted seminars in marketing, feasibility studies, pricing, distributing, packaging and project planning for small enterprises. RCID also assisted the Alexandria Association of Home Economics, an Egyptian nongovernmental organization, in project design and implementation.

RCID, funded by USAID through the National Council of Negro Women, achieved its targets in credit delivery, microenterprise development and local institution-building and had significant impact. The loan program had an astonishing 100 percent repayment rate, with 50 percent of clients reporting increased business activity and 80 percent reporting increased facility with pricing, costing and marketing.