Egypt’s Industrial Development Bank ups SME portfolio to $77mn at Sept-end

Egypt’s Industrial Development and Workers Bank (IDWBE) registered a 27 percent y-o-y jump in its direct and indirect portfolio of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by the end of September 2015, said its chairman Monday.

Hamdy Azzam said the bank’s SME direct and indirect portfolio recorded 620 million Egyptian pounds (US$77 million) by the end of September 2015.

The banking official further told Amwal Al Ghad that the bank is seeking to expand into micro-financing activities and to increase the SME finance to 200 million pounds in the coming period.

The bank is offering multiple financing programmes, notably in areas of agriculture and vet services in cooperation with the Commercial International Bank (CIB), Azzam added.

The bank has negotiated with foreign financial institution to get loans tailored to finance small-sized projects,

Seeking to get loans dedicated for small-sized projects, IDWBE has negotiated with international financial institutions, yet the latter conditioned the Egyptian bank to complete the endorsement of budgets of former years, the banking official stated. Therefore, IDWBE is in the process to ratify its budget for years 2012, 2013, and 2014.