Saudi Arabia to send Egypt additional $97 mln of Sinai loan ‘in days’

Saudi Arabia will send Egypt “within few days” an additional of $97 million to complete the first tranche of its loan for Sinai development scheme, a senior government source told Amwal Al Ghad on Tuesday.

Egypt has recently received $300 million, part of the first tranche of the Saudi Arabia’s Sinai development loan, the government official said. The remaining $97 million will go for building King Salman’s University in Al-Tor city and the first phase of some development projects in the peninsula, he added.

The agreement, titled King Salman’s programme for the development of the peninsula of Sinai, was signed by government officials from the two countries in Riyadh in March. The agreement was aimed at giving Egypt a $1.5 billion soft loan to help it develop Sinai and buy Saudi oil products needed for development purposes.

Saudi Fund for Development’s loan for the development of Sinai is worth around $1.4 billion in addition to $100 million to be kept in reserves, the government official source said.

The kingdom will disburse 30 percent of the loan for each tranche; and 10 percent for the last tranche, the official added.