AFDB to send $500mn loan to Egypt before year-end: minister

Egyptian government is expecting to receive US$500 million from the Côte d’Ivoire-based African Development Bank (AFDB) before end of this year to finance the urgent developing projects, Al-Ahram reported Friday citing the international cooperation minister Sahar Nasr.

The money is first chunk of US$1.5 billion loan that has been negotiated with the AFDB to be sent over three years, Al-Ahram said.

Egypt has said it needs the money to help ease a foreign currency shortage caused by a slide in tourism revenues and foreign investment.

Meanwhile, a senior World Bank official said he expects his bank to make a US$1 billion development policy loan available to Egypt in December if all goes to plan after completing negotiations in Cairo last weekend, said Thursday.

The loan could be the first of three as part of a three-year program with Egypt, Hafez Ghanem, the World Bank’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, said.

“Our team was in Cairo over the weekend and I think they completed the negotiations,” he said, adding that the World Bank and Egyptian government still needed to approve the final documents for the US$1 billion installment.

“It would come through sometime in December if everything is fine,” he said.

“There is an agreement in principle that this is a US$3 billion, 3-year program, but that commitment is only for the first year,” he added.