Market Study for the Mahmoud Abbas Loan Program

The Mahmoud Abbas Foundation (MAF) commissioned InfoPro to conduct a market study in order to develop a student’s loan program for Palestinian refugees residing in Palestinian camps in Lebanon. Since 2010, MAF was offering more than 2,000 grants to Palestinian students covering between 40 percent to 70 percent of their tuition fees. However, Palestinian students were still finding it difficult to cover the rest of their tuition despite the grants offered. Thus, MAF was studying the option of offering a student loan program. Loans and grants would complement each other and would be harmonized. InfoPro conducted interviews with 250 Palestinian students to ask them about their opinion on the current programs offered by MAF and their current situation. InfoPro also conducted three focus groups with Palestinian students to have a better understanding of their needs. In addition, InfoPro conducted interviews with banks and micro-finance organizations to have a better view of the current student loan programs available in the market. Finally, InfoPro designed several loan schemes and conducted feasibility studies in order to assist MAF in selecting the best loan program.