Incorporated in the summer of 2009 with financial assistance from the USAID-Tijara Provincial Economic Growth Program, the Iraqi Company for Financing SMEs (ICF-SME) provides lower cost financing to private banks that use the money to make small and medium enterprise loans to companies in need of temporary operating capital. The program is ...more >

In 2004, Susan Abdul Razak Aziz was well on her way to becoming the most successful woman in Kirkuk. The frozen pizza, beef burgers and shish kabobs produced by her Yasmn food company were family favorites due to their quality and convenience. She owned two delivery trucks, three freezers, four meat grinders ...more >

The Sahara Economic Development Organization (SEDO) in Tikrit, the provincial capital of Iraq’s Salah ad Din province, is one of 15 Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) es-tablished by the USAID-Tijara Provincial Economic Growth Program. The goal of the SBDCs is to assist Iraq’s transition from a state-dominated to a market-driven economy. ...more >

Amid all the uncertainties of modern Iraq there is one immutable constant: when summer arrives temperatures in Baghdad soar to more than 120º F and stay there for several months. This seasonal reality is especially discomforting for motorists mired in traffic. Today, however, comfort levels are rising as thousands of Baghdadis trade ...more >

Nestled along the Iranian border, the Kurdish province of Sule-maniyah once was Iraq's quietest. But all that changed in March 1988 when Saddam Hussein launched a brutal campaign to exterminate the Kurds. Led by Ali Hasan al-Majid, the infamous "Chemical Ali," the attack focused on the village of Halabja southeast of the ...more >

For women in Iraq, creating a business is no easy task. Culture, tradition and the sheer weight of history argue against success. But today women in Kirkuk finally are discovering new opportunities thanks to the Al-Murshed (Guiding Light) Small Business Development Center.

Al-Murshed is one of 14 SBDCs supported by the USAID Tijara ...more >

Abbas Fadhel got into business the old fashioned way: he inherited a chicken farm following his father’s death in the early 1990s. Located in Al-Neil near Hilla in Babil province, the farm was substantial, consisting of six acres of land and two large hatcheries housing about 10,000 chickens. Abbas was dissatisfied, however, ...more >

Al Bashaer, a registered Iraqi non-profit organization, has been providing small business loans to the Baghdad business community since 2006. Created with the support of Tijara, a USAID funded economic growth and development program, as well as the Baghdad embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams (ePRTs), it is rapidly becoming self-sustaining.

As of November ...more >

Faris is a veteran of the Iraq-Iran war who was injured and lost one leg in battle. Upon returning home to Tikrit he took a job as a carpenter in a small shop to provide for his wife and four children. Keen to start his own business and improve the life of ...more >

Sahira is a widow who takes care of her child and her brothers who were injured in the war. With a small loan of $1,500 she started a business - sewing and packaging bed covers - and she hired two young women to help her. "I am very happy and proud of ...more >