US Embassy to hold Conference over micro projects in Iraq

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The US Embassy will hold a two-day conference over the micro projects in Iraq.

A statement by the US Embassy in Baghdad cited “From October 23 – 24, 2012, the U.S. Mission in Iraq, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and in cooperation with the Iraqi Microfinance Network, will host the Inclusive Financial Services Stakeholders’ Conference at the Rotana Hotel in Erbil.

The statement added that “The conference theme is Iraqi Microfinance – The Path to Economic and Social Advancement.”

“The conference will bring together international, regional, and national industry leaders, including representatives from Iraq’s 12 microfinance institutions (MFIs), which provide financial services across all of the country’s 18 provinces. Keynote speakers include Erbil Governor Nawzad Hadi and Ali Maki, Director General of Iraq’s NGO Directorate,” the statement continued.

“Since 2003, Iraq’s microfinance industry has disbursed almost 420,000 loans valued at more than $1 billion. Iraq’s microfinance industry provides loans to disadvantaged Iraqi citizens, women, internally displaced persons, and micro and small enterprises in need of business financing,” the statement concluded.