• The United Nations’ ESCWA has launched an e-commerce Acceleration Programme (eCAP) to empower Arab SMEs.
• The eCAP programme will build the capacity of up to 100 SMEs from the Arab region to transition into online selling, either by developing their transactional e-commerce websites or by selling on existing online marketplaces.
• Eligible SMEs must be registered and operational in one of the Arab countries and should have a working product or service that can be sold online.

Press release:

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) launched today the E-commerce Acceleration Programme (eCAP), with the support of the ICC-ESCWA Centre of Entrepreneurship (CoE) and the International Trade Centre, to empower Arab small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through their transition journey into online selling.

The eCAP programme will build the capacity of up to 100 SMEs from the Arab region to transition into online selling, either by developing their transactional eCommerce websites or by selling on existing online marketplaces. Participating SMEs will benefit from business and technical expertise, one-year support and critical setup fees to build/optimize the online platform or sell on existing marketplaces, one-on-one coaching, in addition to exposure and access to networking opportunities.

Eligible SMEs must be registered and operational in one of the Arab countries and should have a working product or service that can be sold online. Moreover, SMEs must have an online presence through social media or through an existing website not fully optimised and should be willing to dedicate 1-2 team members for the project.