25 businesses join business growth programme ‘Accelerate with JEDCO’

AMMAN — Acting CEO of the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) Mohammad Al Mheirat on Wednesday hosted a signing ceremony for an additional 25 businesses to implement growth action plans as part of the “Accelerate with JEDCO” programme.

The 2.6-million-euro programme is financed by the G7 Deauville Partnership — MENA Transition Fund, through the EIB Facility for the Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) to support the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO).

The businesses were selected on the basis of their high growth potential and their ambition, capacity, capability and opportunity for growth from the 170 firms who applied to join the “Accelerate with JEDCO” programme in the third round, JEDCO said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

The 25 businesses were drawn from a wide range of industrial and services sectors and from Irbid, Mafraq, Zarqa, Aqaba and Amman governorates. 

JEDCO’s business growth managers will now work with these client businesses to assist them in the implementation of their growth action plans through accessing specialist support from within JEDCO and more widely from other government and donor programmes. The assistance that the SME participants will receive is bespoke, with the package of support focused on the specific needs of the business, the statement said.

The 25 firms participating in the programme over the period of the plans project an increase in sales of 22 per cent and the creation of over 409 new jobs. 

“The importance of small and medium businesses to the Jordanian economy cannot be overestimated, 99 per cent of all employers are SMEs, and 52 per cent of the private sector workforce makes its living within the SME segment,” Mheirat said, adding “SMEs also account for virtually all of the net new jobs in Jordan, and provide 96 per cent of all goods exported from the country. Small businesses have a huge amount to offer. They are agile and create jobs faster and in larger numbers than any other kind of organisation can.”

Seventy five businesses have joined the “Accelerate with JEDCO” programme during the 3 rounds, he noted, stressing the “significant impact of the assistance on the businesses”.