Banque Misr pumps EGP 5bln into SMEs among CBE initiative

Egypt’s second-largest state-run bank, Banque Misr, pumped 5 billion Egyptian pounds as part of the Central Bank of Egypt’s initiative for SMEs at 5percent interest rate, Sherif El-Behery the Head of Banque Misr’s SMEs & Micro Finance Department.

He further told Amwal Al Ghad that  the bank’s SME’s portfolio has increased to 20 billion pounds by the end of March 2019.

El-Behery added that the bank seeks to inject 3 billion pounds into the SMEs sector by the end of June 2019 within its plan to increase the portfolio to 45 billion pounds by 2020.

Previously, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) launched an initiative to encourage SME financing, saying that banks were required to allocate 20% of their total credit portfolios to financing projects until 2020.