With youth empowerment lying at the heart of its mission, the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) undertakes several initiatives to promote entrepreneurship among students and graduates and enhance their ability to set and reach goals, innovate, and turn ideas into reality.
TIEC works to nurture technological innovations, help startups grow, and assist innovators and entrepreneurs to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and work toward their goals. This is fulfilled through ambitious and life-changing programs for advancing creativity and entrepreneurship. The Center’s activities cultivate an innovation mindset, enhance creative thinking skills, and support engagement and integration among the elements of the ecosystem.
The programs offered by TIEC fall under four categories. The first is “Build Your Talent” which aims to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among young Egyptians. “Get Inspired” is the second category, with programs such as TIEC Pre-incubation and Women Entrepreneurship motivating youth to create and ideate.
The third category is “Start Your Business.” Programs in this category target young entrepreneurs, founders of early-stage startups, and those aspiring to turn their ideas into successful businesses. Under “Boost Your Business,” the fourth category, programs are tailored to aid the growth of small businesses and foster innovation for SMEs in Egypt.
Falling under the fourth category are some of TIEC most prominent programs, including Consultancy Services, Co-Working Spaces, the famous Creativa Innovation Hubs, and other programs oriented toward technological innovation and entrepreneurship.
A flagship project by TIEC, the Women Entrepreneurship Program—also known as Heya Raeda—is executed in light of the vision of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) of upskilling women and increasing their financial and social empowerment as a key component of development. Female entrepreneurs are trained on startup and business essentials and receive support throughout their journey to building startups specializing in ICT or using it as an enabling factor, like digital marketing.
TIEC, through the program, strives to empower women, develop their skills, and encourage them to start their own businesses, while focusing on practice rather than theory.
Heya Raeda is open to Egyptian ladies in all 27 governorates, with a special focus on entrepreneurs with project ideas in ICT in the form of a website, mobile application, software, or IoT-powered platform. Target audience also includes women employing digital marketing to advertise their products.
From 2017 to 2020, the Center carried out four rounds of the program, training 500 ladies. The multi-tier training scheme resulted in graduates majoring in different specializations: 47% in service platforms, 27% in e-commerce platforms, 9% in mobile apps, 6% in software, and 11% in others.
In 2021 and 2022 alone, TIEC managed to train as many as 600 women entrepreneurs. In 2022, a total of 33 top performers joined TIEC Pre-Incubation, with two starting to generate revenues already. TIEC Pre-Incubation is a program that helps entrepreneurs embark on their business development journey.
Adding to the Center’s successes, the program's alumni served various sectors: e-commerce, education, FinTech, telecommunication, Agritech, food and beverages, healthcare, and media.
MCIT has a proven track record of achieving integration and building successful development models through various projects. The Ministry collaborates with development partners and state agencies to empower women, helping add value and build successful models that transfer and exchange expertise in technology fields and boost economic growth.
