National Bank of Egypt to build 72 SME centres in Cairo, Alexandria

National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the country’s biggest public lender, plans to establish 72 centres for small and medium-sized businesses in Cairo and Alexandria, a banking official told Amwal Al Ghad Wednesday.

Hazem Hegazy, Head of retail banking at NBE, further said there would be 60 SME centres in Cairo and 12 others in Alexandria.

The centres are designated to accelerate the financing process for the SME projects, Hegazy added.

Certain sectors will have the priority in financing the SME projects notably the industrial, then the agricultural, service, and commercial activities, the NBE official said.

NBE is targeting SME portfolio  worth 37 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.16 billion) by the end of financial year 2016-2017, and 72 billion pounds in four years.