From Tunisia to Oman, leaders old and new are encouraging entrepreneurship, creating new public sector jobs or simply throwing their hands up and admitting defeat as young people continue to leave school and with no prospects of finding work.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) says youth unemployment in the Middle East in 2012 was 26.4 per cent. Compare that to the global average of 12.6 per cent. While the global rate will increase fractionally over the next five years, in the Middle East, the ILO estimates that youth unemployment will rise to 28.4 per cent by 2017.
Youth unemployment is a theme we continually return to in our news coverage on CNN shows like Global Exchange and Marketplace Middle East. The fact is, the region needs more entrepreneurs. By that, I mean people prepared to risk their own money to start a business that hopefully will employ other people one day. And maybe inspire others to do the same.
It may be that women entrepreneurs will lead the way. Emirati national Aisha Al-Sougi has been baking since she was a girl. Three years ago, she decided to turn her passion into a home-based cheesecake business. Marketing her products under the name Sweetopia, Al-Sougi’s sales have tripled since she started. And in a good month, she can make nearly 7,000 USD in profit.
Sweetopia has allowed Al-Sougi to give up her day job as a computer engineer and pursue her business full-time. Sweetopia has outgrown her home, so she’s planning to open her own cheesecake café in Sharjah. But Al-Sougi’s ambitions don’t stop there. “I’m trying to make it a franchising business,” she says. “Not only across the UAE. Anywhere in the Gulf and also global.”
Al-Sougi is part of a new breed of women entrepreneurs in the UAE. Through the Khalifa Fund, the government provides budding entrepreneurs training and capital. The fund began its entrepreneurship programme in 2007 and has created a sharp jump in the number of local businesswomen.
“The number of women has doubled in the last five years,” says Najla Al-Midfa, Senior Manager at the fund’s Entrepreneurship Development unit. “We started with about 20 per cent women and we're up to almost 40 per cent now.”
The reason is simple. Many women in the UAE prefer not to work in mixed-gender environments. Home businesses afford them freedom and the ability to earn a living. “Most women do also have the caretaker role at home,” explains Al-Midfa. “So it's the comfort and convenience that entrepreneurship affords them, while at the same time working on their passion.”
Research from the Khalifa Fund finds that women are twice as likely as men to give up their day jobs once their business is established. Muna Bilal certainly hopes to give up her government job one day to focus on her business. She started making perfumes from home in 2004 to supplement her income. “I found myself really suffering. I had my 3 kids without a father because we divorced,” she says. “I decided to take a business line in my life.”
Nine years on, Bilal’s business has grown and she now sells up to 2,000 dollars’ worth of perfume a month. Working from home has allowed her to expand her business, while spending more time with her children. She's been able to increase her customer base via word of mouth and social media. “I started in the UAE. Then three years ago, I started in Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and I have business in Lebanon, the UK and in India.”
For now, Bilal remains happy to conduct business from home. She sees entrepreneurship as an opportunity that affords freedom and as something that could serve as an example for others in her position, whether they are women or men.
