JEDCO inks 15 agreements to support licensing of home-based businesses

AMMAN — The Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) on Wednesday signed agreements to grant 15 home-based businesses owners to join "Licensing The Home Based-Businesses Programme” which was launched earlier this year.

The programme, with a total value of JD11,700, was launched in cooperation with the International Spark Organisation to encourage people operating their business informally from home to register legally as a formal home-based enterprise, according to a JEDCO statement.

It seeks to develop home-based businesses, increase their opportunities to access financing, training, guidance and marketing assistance.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri said in his speech during the online meeting that the Economic Policies Council in Jordan had issued recommendations that emphasised the importance of facilitating and developing a framework for home-based businesses, to facilitate startups with the lowest costs and simplest procedures possible.

“The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the Greater Amman Municipality developed and amended the legislative and institutional system that regulates home-based businesses to include more professions and to cover all governorates of the Kingdom,” the minister said.

JEDCO's CEO Bashar Al Zu’bi said that the corporation’s technical staff developed an electronic application to enable home-bases businesses owners to fill out the e-application easily through a mobile or a computer.

Zu’bi indicated that 1,435 e-applications were received from home-based businesses, of which 81 per cent are from businesses owned by women, and 87.1 per cent of the projects are not licensed and registered.

The JEDCO CEO noted that the corporation has made agreement with a specialised company from the private sector, under the supervision of the concerned JEDCO's technical team, to sort the eligible applications 

A total of 979 applications were qualified and 633 personal interviews were conducted, he said.

A technical evaluation of the projects was conducted and site visits were made for the top 100 projects in all governorates, where the top 50 projects will receive financial grants, Zu’bi said. 

On Wednesday JEDCO signed agreements with 15 projects that meet the conditions from Amman, Irbid, Zarqa, Mafraq and Jerash, and 35 projects will be signed during the coming weeks, according to the statement.

Zu’bi added that a training programme will be implemented to develop the skills of 50 projects owners in the fields of project management, financial management and marketing, in addition to providing assistance in registering and licensing 25 projects and following up with them.

JEDCO through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply's support will work to link 40 projects' owners with institutions and malls and organise exhibitions and bazaars dedicated to direct sales to help them market their products and the sustainability of their projects, he said.

The winning projects were mainly concentrated in the food processing, handicrafts and household services sectors.