The United States Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the RIPPLE Entrepreneurship Centers Development Program in partnership with the Arab League and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport. The RIPPLE program will work with ten Egyptian universities to establish and upgrade entrepreneurship centers for university students. These centers will encourage and foster innovative business ideas, which will help stimulate job creation.

During the program’s launch, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Evyenia Sidereas said, “Never before has private sector job creation and entrepreneurship been so crucial for Egypt’s future development. Students involved in the entrepreneurship centers created and supported by the RIPPLE program will graduate with the skills, training, networks, and confidence they need to launch their careers as entrepreneurs and builders of new, innovative businesses.”

These ten entrepreneurship centers will provide student entrepreneurs with resources, mentoring, guidance, and training to help them generate new business ideas and grow their businesses. The program establishes entrepreneurship centers in universities, focusing on Egypt’s youth, a vital demographic for economic development.

The RIPPLE program is part of the U.S. Government’s nearly-$35-million-dollar Business Egypt program, which seeks to expand the quality and quantity of job opportunities for Egyptians by assisting new and existing micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises. This new program builds on a long and successful partnership between USAID and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport that helped establish and furnish three incubators to help train 6,500 entrepreneurs, including 2000 women, and 195 startups.

The U.S. Government works closely with the Government of Egypt on strengthening the ecosystem for Egyptian start-ups by, among other things, providing over $30 billion to support economic programs across the country, including $15 billion to support the Egyptian government and businesses in modernizing and growing the economy.