Arab Investment Bank mulls injecting $47.3mn into SME projects

The Arab Investment Bank (AIBK) is studying pumping 420 million Egyptian pounds (US$47.3 million) in favour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), head of SME Division announced Thursday.

The money will go for around 490 SME clients, Adel Taha – Head of SME Division at AIBK – said.

This comes as part of the central’s initiative to finance SME sector.

In January, Egypt’s central bank launched an initiative to finance SMEs, and obliged banks to provide a minimum of 20 percent of their total loans portfolio to this sector within four years. Moreover, the CBE mandated that banks must submit a comprehensive outline indicating how they will implement the CBE’s recommendation.