STE in Digital Finance / FinTech (online lending platforms)

Support to an enabling business environment for MSME development and financial inclusion – MED MSMEs Programme

The MED MSMEs programme is an EU regional initiative that accompanies the beneficiary countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Syria (cooperation with Syria is temporarily suspended) in the implementation of some dimensions of the Small Business Act - SBA for Europe, namely:

• Institutional and regulatory framework for SME policymaking (SBA 3),
• Access to finance for SMEs (SBA 6),
•  Internationalisation of SMEs (SBA 10),

the SBA1 entrepreneurship / gender dimension being mainstreamed in all the programme’s activities.

The programme objectives are twofold:

• strengthening the capacity of the UfM, SBA National Coordinators (SBAC) and national stakeholders involved in the formulation of policies and the implementation of support instruments tailored to the needs of SMEs and
• promoting the exchange of experiences and best practices around the relevant topics through the development of coordination platforms at regional level.

Indeed, while strategies and reforms supported will be developed at national level, the MED MSMEs programme looks at leveraging expertise, knowledge and experiences at regional level and at fostering the regional sharing of expertise and experiences as well as peer learning (South-South).

Tasks of the expert are:

• Research and develop synthesis on successful EU online lending platforms
• Research and analyse policies and regulations allowing the implementation of online lending platforms
• Develop a comparative matrix for partner countries to present gaps and opportunities for improving policies
• Participate and lead online webinar to present : a) summary on the result of the analysis b) successful experience from the EU region c) mechanism for establishing sustainable online lending platforms (crowdfunding)