Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII)

Founded with the conviction that the path to social and political suitability in the mena region requires a sound and sustainable economic base, meii breaks from traditional aid models and designs innovative development finance initiatives that foster economic opportunities and dignity instead of dependency. Meii has been proving for over a decade that formal and informal small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) are both credit worthy and net contributors to job creation in the mena region. Starting in palestine in 2008 and expanding to tunisia in 2015, meii has financed over $616 million in lending to more than 4,598 businesses with a cumulative loss rate of less than 1.5%. Over this period, an estimated 41,587 jobs have been created and sustained in the region. Meii stimulates local bank lending by providing partner banks with loan guarantees and technical assistance to assess the viability of their sme clients and structure loans to meet borrower working capital and longer-term capital needs.

Meii also facilitates sme access to capital by improving the accounting and financial literacy of businesses and matching them to available capital through an innovative online platform called "tamweeli". Starting in palestine in 2014 and expanding to jordan and tunisia, more than 3,705 smes received technical assistance from meii business advisors. The tamweeli platform harnesses the security, speed, and simplicity of the internet to streamline the financing process for both financial intermediaries & smes, connecting businesses with funding for growth and helping lenders and investors assess opportunities. More than 11,646 smes have registered on the platform and $23.6 million in loans have been financed by local financial intermediaries.