Palladium and USAID kick started the support the Livelihoods and Inclusive Finance Expansion (LIFE) project in Lebanon. The aim of the project is to economically empower the unbanked, low-income, and underserved micro clientele ad simultaneously link vulnerable entrepreneurs with micro-finance institutions who will provide them with customized business management training, technical know-how, mentoring, and basic business development skills. The aim of the project is to also to strengthen the capacity of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and the Lebanese Microfinance Association (LMA) so that they can increase their range of products and services and expand their reach of borrowers to include microenterprises with an emphasis on higher-risk, conflict affected areas, including new, unbanked, and existing microenterprises, and low-income women-headed households. In order to gain a better understanding of entrepreneurship in Lebanon and to assist the Central Bank, in understanding the microenterprise landscape, InfoPro was commissioned to conduct a National Market Demand Survey among the general population and micro-enterprises. The aim of the survey was to profile micro-entrepreneurs and potential micro-entrepreneurs, identify the financial services they currently utilize, their demand for additional financial services, and how they are distributed across the various Lebanese governorates / Mohafazat. The findings of the survey helped InfoPro forecast the potential market value for micro-finance institutions among both the general population and micro-enterprises. It also helped reveal the areas that should be concentrated on. In total, InfoPro interviewed 2,000 households and 1,200 micro-enterprises nationwide.
