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Cisco is partnering with Relief International to implement the Cisco Rural Enterprise Development for Information Technology (CREDIT) program. This program extends small loans to entrepreneurs wanting to start new IT and Internet access-related businesses in rural areas of Lebanon.

Cisco and Relief International created the CREDIT program to promote ICT and reduce the digital divide between urban and rural areas. Through CREDIT, access to capital for the ICT sector was made available in order to create successful businesses that contribute to community and economic development in Lebanon’s rural and universal areas. With Cisco’s support, Relief International is providing a loan of USD$ 1M to Lebanon’s two most prominent micro-finance institutions, Al Majmoua and Ameen, to offer access to capital for the ICT sector in order to create successful businesses that contribute to community and economic development in Lebanon’s rural and underserved areas.

Networking Academy graduates in Lebanon are eligible to engage in this entrepreneurial opportunity and the participants will receive training to enhance their marketing, financial, management, and business-planning skills as well as loans to cover 10 to 50 percent of their start-up capital. Examples of new enterprises that may be nurtured by the CREDIT program include network installers, network diagnostics providers, consumer networking installation/troubleshooting firms, community centers, and rural Internet service providers.

The objectives of the CREDIT project are to improve the capacity of local Lebanese micro-finance institutions to serve the ICT sector, develop business and entrepreneurship skills of Cisco Networking Academy (CNA), CCNP, and other ICT graduates across Lebanon and strengthen community engagement in ICT sector.