The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened a virtual follow-up meeting on the Project of Promoting the Concept of Family Bank in the G-5 Sahel Member States at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah on Thursday, 12 October 2023.
The Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian, Cultural and Social Affairs, Ambassador Tarig Ali Bakheet delivered a speech at the meeting. In his speech, he highlighted the role of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (ICCIA) and its efforts in pursuing this important project. He also commended the efforts of project partners, especially the Chambers of Commerce in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, and Mali and that of the national committees that were established to follow up on the project’s implementation.
He also extended appreciation to the Arab Republic of Egypt, Chair of the current session of the OIC Ministerial Conference on Women and the OIC Ministerial Conference on Social Development, for its efforts in following up on the implementation of the Resolutions issued by the conferences, and its support to the General Secretariat’s activities.
Ambassador Bakheet explained that H.E the OIC Secretary General, MrHisseinBrahimTaha, attaches great importance to this project, and the role of microfinance in empowering women and family stability. He called on the ICCIA and all concerned parties to make additional efforts to implement the project, which was approved by the Women Ministerial Conferences more than five years ago, by identifying obstacles and proposing possible solutions to address them.
It is worth mentioning that the meeting was held to evaluate the progress achieved by the authorities and stakeholders in the five Sahel-Saharan countries since the last meeting, which was held on 15 August 2022. The meeting also studied the challenges faced by the authorities and stakeholders.—PR
