The ultimate purpose of the DIFILIM Project is to contribute towards enhancing digital financial literacy/inclusion in certain European micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs and MSMEs). During the two-year project, partners carry out various research and development activities and face-to-face meetings with entrepreneurs.
The main activities include:
· Pilot surveys to identify digital and financial literacy needs.
· Analysis of best practices and development of blueprints and guidelines for the best practices’ implementation.
· Transferring best practices to the local context and developing implementation guidelines adapted to the local needs. The training program addresses MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs.
The 1st Transnational Project Partners meeting in Riga, took place at the premises of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 21 and 22 of April 2022.
The 2nd Transnational Project Partners meeting in Limassol, took place at the Cyprus University of Technology on the 19th and 20th of September 2022.
The Project Result 1 considered research on the needs and impact of Digital Financial Literacy on enterprises in each Partner Country. The main findings of the report can be summarized as follows: (i) The financial literacy of micro entrepreneurs is relatively low in most participating countries. On average across DIFILIM participating countries, only 11% of microenterprises’ owners with up to 9 people and 19% of microenterprises’ owners with 10-49 people showed high levels of financial literacy. (ii) Although the digitalization of many microenterprises is high, most microenterprises’ owners report lack of skills to support the digital transformation process. On average across DIFILIM countries, fewer than 40% of microenterprises with up to 9 people indicated that they have the necessary workforce and skillset. Relatively few businesses have a clear road map for implementing Industry 4.0 or knows exactly what to do when it comes to digital transformation. (iii) At the same time, 43.28% of respondents responded that their business has received some form of support introduced due to the pandemic.
Next Steps in 2023:
· Finalization of the training resources.
· 3rd Transnational Project Partners’ meeting in Rome in January.
· Dissemination events in each partner country to stakeholders and enterprises.
· Development of Online Training Platform
· Announcement and promotion of the Online Trainings in Digital-Financial Literacy for SMEs, MSMEs and enterprises.
· 4th Transnational Project Partners’ meeting in Netherlands.
