Ramallah – The Ministry of National Economy and Bank of Palestine concluded the first series of awareness sessions for women owners of small and medium size enterprise, held in the governorates of Jenin, Nablus, Hebron, and in Jerusalem.
Ms. Abir Omran, the Head of the Gender Unit at the Ministry of National Economy, stated that the aim of these meetings is to formally and systematically organize the businesses and projects of women entrepreneurs, protect and support these projects in all economic sectors, and activate women’s positive roles in developing the national economy.
Omran pointed to the importance of registration and transformation to an organized sector, in order to enable small business owners to benefit from programs, projects and grants that are implemented in cooperation with partner agencies, pointing to the importance of these meetings in raising banking awareness among business owners, as well as informing them of the ministry's activities and programs in support of women's entrepreneurship.
Mr. Mahmoud Al Shawa, the General Manager of Bank of Palestine, expressed his pride in the partnership with the Ministry of National Economy, which aims to raise awareness of small banking business owners about the service provided by the Ministry and the Bank, pointing out that this meeting comes within the framework of the Bank’s endeavor to achieve financial inclusion and strengthen partnership with various institutions to reach different segments of society.
Al Shawa pointed out that Bank of Palestine, through the Felestineya program, is concerned with supporting women's entrepreneurship, seeking to contribute to empowering women to launch their projects and to contribute to providing income-generating opportunities for themselves and other women, by developing their banking, marketing, administrative and leadership knowledge, and introducing them to the digital skills that support them in developing their projects and products.
It should be noted that, in conjunction with the awareness-raising meetings, there was a "mobile banking" presence in order to provide banking services to the women participating in the meetings, where the services of opening accounts and issuing cards were provided immediately, in addition to submitting and filling out requests for some banking services, with the aim of enabling customers and the community to access banking services in their places of residence.