children’s
clothing firm started by a young unemployed couple is winning export
orders from around the world. The Algerian husband-and-wife team now
employs 250 other young people.
Their success story is a typical example of how ANSEJ,
the National Agency for the Support of Youth Employment, has stimulated
enterprise since it was founded in 1996.
ANSEJ was created to help mop up the high level
of unemployment among young people and to assist an up-and-coming generation
of school leavers and university graduates on the verge of entering
the job market.
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Ansej
was created to help combat unemployment among new school-leavers
and graduates |
Over
the past four years, ANSEJ has helped create some 42,000 small enterprises
and more than 150,000 direct jobs. With funding from the government,
the agency has helped thousands of young people set up in business or
follow their chosen vocation.
Former jobseekers are now successfully working in a wide range of jobs,
from plumbing and IT to hairdressing and catering. As their businesses
have grown, many of them have themselves been able to employ more young
people.
At Algeria’s 35th International Fair last
summer, where ANSEJ had a pavilion, 70 small enterprises helped by the
agency took part. Each of these enterprises now employs at least 10
people.
Many of the new jobs are in the service sector,
which is rapidly expanding, thanks to Algeria’s growing market
economy. The government believes that its policy of opening up the economy
will create more jobs for the large number of teenagers who will soon
be entering the job market. – 35 per cent of the 32 million population
is under 14.
So far, ANSEJ has given about £93 million
in interest-free loans to young individuals or groups of young people.
The young people themselves have raised about £85 million and
banks have also invested in the various projects, the total cost of
which now amounts to more than £539 million.
The programme took two years to get off the ground
– the agency went on nationwide roadshows, lobbied training institutes,
colleges and universities, and also advertised on television and radio.
It then went on to set up a chain of offices across the country –
there are now 54.
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“We
did not want to wait until these young people found themselves on the
labour market,” says Abdelghani Mebarek,
the General Director of ANSEJ. “We told them that they could create
their own jobs.
“We even went a little further by suggesting
that they integrate an investment project that corresponded to their
studies into their final theses. We asked staff to help the students
and we asked the universities to create a module that would provide
them with the basic knowledge of how to set up a business.”
Other funding projects have helped students follow
their interests in jewellery, fashion design and food manufacturing.
Young entrepreneurs who have been granted loans under the ANSEJ scheme
are given five years to repay them.
Today, “the most important duty of ANSEJ” is to help develop
these small enterprises, says Mr Mebarek. “The raison d’etre
of this institution is to ensure these incipient enterprises will develop
into something lasting.”
The agency concentrates on supporting those sectors
of the economy that require basic trades – mainly the service sector.
These core enterprises, whether they be cafes, garages or laundries,
all require a skilled labour force.
“I call these young people Algeria’s new breed of managers,”
Mr Mebarek says. “They will build tomorrow’s network of small
and medium-sized enterprises.”
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