| Dr. Fawaz Hamidi – Executive Chairman | |||
| Name of responsible organization: Business Incubation Association inTripoli | |||
| Website: www.biatcenter.org | |||
| NATIONAL OR LOCAL: | National | ||
| Starting year | 2006 | End year | ongoing |
| BIAT’s Vision Statement: We want to be vital, providing success and growth pathways to individuals, firms, organizations, and communities. BIAT’s Mission Statement: We support entrepreneurship to create livelihood and business opportunities through innovative alignment of local and international resources and capabilities. History of organization: Business Incubation Association in Tripoli – BIAT is a Lebanese Non-Governmental Organization established in 2006 (formally registered 2007). BIAT’s main mission is MSME support and job creation and has implemented since 2006 more than 45 SME support and economic development projects in North Lebanon and is recognized by many international and local development actors as the success story of SME arrangements in Lebanon; BIAT is recognized as a good practice example by the Euro-Med Database of good practice, and as the best performance incubator in 2008 as recognized by the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MOET) in Lebanon. BIAT activities were not limited to the creation and development of a business incubator/business development center but also providing support for more than 3000 self-employed entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium enterprises, sectoral/value chain assessments in addition to the mapping of an entire value chain in several geographical areas, woman economic empowerment, youth support, cluster and sectoral development, grant scheme development and distribution, etc. BIAT has hosted over 350 incubates, provided access to finance of over 14 million USD including loans and microcredit, and has distributed cash grants of over 1.1 million USD. The major activities of business support in BIAT included: Access to Finance (Equity, Kafalat and Micro credit), Training (book-keeping, accounting, business planning, MSE strategic planning, innovation, marketing, entrepreneurship courses), Hands on management (1 to 1 coaching), Networking (business to business and institutional networking), and Business Incubation (BIAT provides 96 physical incubation spaces). These services are provided through BIAT Tripoli branch, BIAT Yard Online Incubator, in addition to BIAT mobile field unit. |
What kind of activity does this measure finance?
| Creation of new businesses | Yes/No |
| Strengthening of existing businesses | Yes/No |
| Specific investments – specify type (i.e. innovation, research, environmental transition, hiring, internationalization, purchase of goods) | Yes/No |
| Training activities | Yes/No |
| Other (specify) | Yes/No networking events, focus group discussions, one-on-one coaching sessions, in-kind grants, access to new markets |
What type of financing is it?
| Low-interest loan (indicate the repayment time and, if present, the requirement for collateral) | Yes/No If Yes, repayment time (years): If Yes, requirement for collateral: |
| Non-repayable grant (indicate the percentage of non-repayable fund) | Yes/No If Yes, percentage of non-repayable fund: 100% |
| Tax credit | Yes/No |
| Other (specify) | Yes/No please note that our support is through implementation of projects funded by Donors international donors as UN Agencies, EU, USAID, GIZ,… |
How does the activation of the measure work?
| One-stop means | Yes |
| Call with closing date | Yes |
Financial entity of the measure (indicate the resources allocated)
| Overall amount | |
| % facilitation for each recipient | |
| Minimum amount that can be financed | Depends on the project, beneficiaries receive different support and different financing based on the project we are implementing |
| Maximum amount that can be financed | Depends on the project, beneficiaries receive different support and different financing based on the project we are implementing |
| Origin of financial resources (European, State, Regional authority, Municipal authority, other) | GIZ, UNDP, US GRANTS GOV., USAID, RMF |
Type of funded social structure (indicate if belonging to a specific category is required in order, to access the measure)
| Female | Over 50 | Unemployed (specify any type) | Disadvantaged groups (specify type) | Youth (specify age range) | Other (specify) | |
| Individual | ||||||
| Company |
Does the measure provide for accompaniment and training or only financial support?
| Financial support + accompaniment/training | |
| Only Financial support |
Is the measure considered a good practice and as such replicable in other national and / or international contexts?
| YES | X |
| NO |
How many initiatives have been financed in the last 3 years and for what economic amount?
| Number of initiatives 10 INITIATIVES in total (10 projects funded by 2 GIZ, 3 UNDP, 1 US GRANTS GOV., 3 USAID 1 RMF) | Total economic amount Approx. 3,000,000 USD. |
