Egypt’s MSME agency negotiating World Bank for $200 million loan

Egypt’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) is negotiating a $200 million loan from the World Bank to finance small and micro-sized projects, its chairperson said Monday.

MSMEDA, previously known as the Social Fund for Development, is an autonomous development and poverty-alleviation agency, established in 1991 with support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It is an agency affiliated to Egypt’s Cabinet, designed to act as a social safety net to undertake the government’s economic reform programme by developing the MSME sector directly or through the coordination of the efforts of the different stakeholders.

“We are seeking to reach a final agreement with the World Bank before the end of this year,” Nevine Gamea told Amwal Al Ghad on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo.

Small and medium-sized businesses account for over 90 percent of enterprises in Egypt and contribute to the majority of total employment in the country. That is why increasing access to finance for SMEs has become a top priority for the authorities in Egypt.