IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, with help from its development partners, has provided advisory services to businesses across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to help them grow, create jobs and boost economic development in the region. 

IFC Development partners, including the governments of Canada, Switzerland, Hungary Italy, Korea and Japan, and the MENA Transition Fund, have contributed over $20m to IFC’s advisory program in fiscal year 2016.

The program provides comprehensive solutions to business in developing countries to address development challenges, ranging from improving access to finance for smaller businesses to boosting green growth and youth skills development. 

“Our long-term development partners have helped us push forward our advisory program in MENA, enabling us to positively impact businesses and spur economic development,” said Mouayed Makhlouf, IFC Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“IFC’s advisory work helps create a business-friendly environment for the private sector, unlocking its potential and enabling it to play its natural role in driving economic growth in the region," he said. 

Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO, has provided $3m to IFC’s MENA MSME Technical Assistance Facility to help improve financing for micro, small and medium enterprises in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza. 

The Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea has provided $7m to support the MENA Inclusive Green Growth program, which aims to accelerate market change by addressing the barriers to the adoption and scale-up of technologies and practices that support green growth. 

Japan has provided over $4.5m to boost access to finance, enhance trade and competitiveness, and promote hydro sector development in North Africa and the Levant region, as well as in Pakistan. 

Canada has provided $1.6m to support green growth and youth skills development across North Africa and the Levant, in addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while Hungary, through its Exim Bank, has provided $500,000 to promote sustainable energy financing in North Africa and Levant countries.   

Under the Green Growth Trust Fund established with IFC, Korea has invested more than $700,000 to support green growth in the MENA region with a specific focus on Egypt. 

Meanwhile, the MENA Transition Fund’s $2.4m contribution will support the enhancement of trade and competitiveness and access to finance in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. 

Since 2008, UKaid supported IFC advisory program in MENA to strengthen the region’s private sector and help unlock its potential.

The long-term support from UKaid included supporting IFC’s MENA MSME Technical Assistance Facility in 2012, and IFC’s private sector development program in Pakistan in 2014.