Egypt’s SFD to Obtain $400 mln Loans from UAE, Saudi Funds

Egypt’s Social Fund for Development (SFD) will get loans amounting to US$ 400 million next March from UAE’s Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development ( Khalifa Fund ) and the Saudi Fund for Development. The USD400 mln loans are designated to finance small, micro and medium enterprises in Egypt.

Hanaa El Hilaly – Director general at Egypt’s SFD – said her fund has signed a memorandum of understanding with Khalifa Fund, whereas the definitive loan agreements will be inked within next month. For this loan, the payments are due within 15 years, she noted, outlining joint efforts to boost development and opportunities for small and micro-sized enterprises in Egypt.

Speaking to Amwal Al Ghad’s Arabic website, El Hilaly revealed ongoing negotiations with the Saudi Fund for Development over a loan worth US$ 200 million. She said the talks are still at the beginning and are expected to finish by the end of first quarter of 2014.

Moreover, El Hilaly stated that Egypt’s SFD is also in talks with the World Bank over loan worth US$ 300 million, designed to finance labor intensive investment projects to create new job opportunities for the youth.

Egypt’s SFD has recently signed an agreement with the European Union to obtain a grant at value of € 70 million.

In earlier statements, SFD’s Secretary General Ghada Waly said her fund injected funding totaled around EGP 4.3 billion to the small and micro-sized projects during 2013.