Tumuh is the Arabic word for ‘ambition ’. The project is designed to empower participants with the objective of helping them establish SMEs. To this end, it provides bespoke business and skills training, finance capabilities, legal requirements, planning, management, marketing and other skills necessary for the successful establishment and running of a business.

Tumuh aims to provide jobs and career opportunities to 70,000 participants by funding start­ups an projects for small to medium economic enterprises. This SME project could act as the starting point for Libya’s alternative economy and diversify the national income away from the reliance on oil and gas revenues.

To kick­start this project, LPRD management divided the objectives into 3 phases:

1. Economic mapping and feasibility study
2. Training and rehabilitation
3. Launch of the SME projects

LPRD has contracted local and international experts to conduct a nationwide economic map and feasibility study to determine the best sort of entrepreneurial projects in each region.

Following the initial mapping stage, the team will then look to establish sustained development. The LPRD has sought to provide constant support and guidance to all the new SME entrepreneurs to guarantee the projects’ sustainability.

This project depended on a strong support team of dedicated consultants who have been able to offer guidance and support to the entrepreneurs throughout their careers. And, as such, 80 business related graduates were selected from the LPRD’s database to be trained as business consultants. Using regional experts, the 80 candidates undertook intense training in key topics such as marketing, sales, project management and business planning. They have also all spent time overseas on further training to gain a broader understanding of the subjects.

In addition the LPRD management has opened up 4 business centres, aiming to increase them to 6 across the major Libyan cities in the next 12 months. These centres will act as a consultancy hub hosting up to 80 business experts who are able to provide more individual support and advice on running businesses.

To launch the Tumuh project, LPRD has partnered with the Islamic Development Bank to supervise and provide technical expertise to this project. The aim is to start up 7,000 projects in the coming 3 years with an average budget of 100,000 dinars per project. If this is successfully achieved, Libya’s economy will see a very positive impact particularly in broadening the nature of the economy away from simply the oil and gas sector and will diversify it by expanding the private sector.