Q&A: Khater Abi Habib

Many entrepreneurs have had their chance at launching a business thanks to loans supported by Kafalat, the government-sponsored loan guarantee company. In fact, of the 20 entrepreneurs featured in this month’s Executive report on entrepreneurship, seven received funding from Kafalat. Given the company’s essential role in bracing entrepreneurship in Lebanon, Executive sat with Khater Abi Habib, chairman of Kafalat, to discuss his views on the issue.   Total Kafalat loans reached $109 million for the first nine months of the year. That’s down 14 percent on the same period last year. Are these loans falling because of a reluctance to increase lending in these challenging economic conditions? The fall is due to three factors. Most fundamentally, when there is political and economical uncertainty, people defer their [financing] decisions. I suspect that when people get used to the fact that we live in stressed times, demand will increase a little. In