Amman- 5 December 2019

The German Jordanian University (GJU) congratulates student Nadeem Freihat from the School of Management and Logistics Sciences (SMLS) - International Accounting, on winning the "Student Award" within EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year™️ 2019 Jordan, in the presence of HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, on Monday, December 2, 2019.

Freihat won the award on his application (Laqta), an online thrift shop that gives the user access to many various types of clothing items on a large-scale level. The users will have the opportunity to purchase high-quality clothing brands with the lowest prices and sell their secondhand clothes. Laqta also provides the "mobile locker" service where a piece of clothing will be donated to the needy for each item purchased.

The Beginning:

Nadeem and his cousin used to go to the used clothes market in Zarqa, early in the morning hunting for high quality branded clothes at a competitive price "Laqta" comparing to the new ones.

Although branded clothes are very popular, especially among the youth, Nadeem realized that this process takes time and effort; therefore, he decided to create an Instagram account selling Laqta clothes to facilitate the process.

The Challenge:

Nadeem explains that his journey to recognition and success included some challenges. The first challenge was his parents' hesitance of his approach, as some parents require from their children to focus on their education only. Another challenge was the finance aspect, where he had to find an investor to kick off his project, it was only possible to Nadeem to invest in 200 Jordanian Dinars that he used intelligently and made a quite large profit.

The Improvement:

Nadeem approached the Program Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the German Jordanian University seeking guidance and support. He says that through the Program, he received training, coaching and was able to network with organizations and institutions for further progression.

The Success:

Nadeem established his start- up business and received three awards besides EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Spark summer boot camp- 1st place, National competition from INJAZ- 2nd place, and AR & VR boot camp from Spark.

About the future, Nadeem says that he currently depends on Instagram's sales, in addition to a small shop for direct sale in Zarqa. He also launched Laqta application that focuses on enhancing the customer's experience in shopping by using Augmented Reality technology. He plans to expand his business to include wider target audiences.

Congratulations Nadeem, keep the hard work and ambition as we here at GJU are very proud of you!