By ARAB NEWS
JEDDAH: Bab Rizq Jameel (BRJ), an initiative of ALJ Community Initiatives (ALJCI), created 19,771 jobs through its international branches in Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Morocco in 2011.
This is in addition to the 40,000 job opportunities BRJ created in Saudi Arabia during the same year.
Maaz Al-Faramawi, BRJ international branches executive director, revealed BRJ International’s operations are still in their initial stages. He added the 2011 results have been achieved at the Egypt and Syria branches only, with the Turkey branch inaugurated only in October 2010 and the Morocco branch late in 2011.
According to Al-Faramawi, 2012 will see a huge expansion in the creation of job opportunities, and the target has been raised to approximately 58,583 job opportunities this year.
“BRJ created 8,930 jobs in Egypt, 8,700 in Syria, 1,874 in Turkey, in addition to 488 in Morocco, totaling 19,771 job opportunities, with an attrition rate of 1 percent. We are seeking to expand to all Middle Eastern countries,” Al-Faramawi added.
Bab Rizq Jameel opened the first BRJ branch in Egypt in 2009, and created 6,910 job opportunities in the same year. In 2011, performance of the branch was successfully upgraded, and the number of job creators was increased. Accordingly, the branch created 8,930 job opportunities during 2011, representing 45 percent of overall job opportunities created internationally.
Sayed Al-Ghol, BRJ Egypt director, said that in the beginning of 2011, BRJ activity in Egypt expanded geographically and the number of job creators was increased to cover Giza and Cairo areas. The Giza team created 4,855 job opportunities through the productive household program, 757 through small projects finance, 478 through the truck ownership program and 101 through the direct employment program — a total of 6,191 job opportunities. Started late in 2010, the Cairo team created 1,983 job opportunities through the productive household scheme and 756 through the small projects finance programs, a total of 2,739 job opportunities. Al-Ghol said BRJ is planning to create 31,355 job opportunities through three branches, as a new branch will be opened in Egypt during 2012.
Al-Ghol added the repayment ratio in BRJ Egypt for the productive household, small projects finance and truck ownership programs have reached 98.5 percent by the end of 2011.
