Egypt’s central bank launches initiative to encourage citizens to convert their cars

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has launched a multi-billion Egyptian pound program to encourage car owners to outfit their vehicles with dual-fuel engines under the government’s natural gas transition plan, Governor Tarek Amer said.

Announced yesterday on the first day of the Go Green Exhibition — an expo put on by the government to publicise its natural gas plans — the central bank says it will make 15 billion Egyptian pounds available for banks to loan out to car owners wanting to convert their vehicles.

Borrowers will pay a fixed 3 percent rate of interest and the loan terms will range between seven and 10 years.

The CBE initiative comes in addition to the 1.2 billion pounds set aside by the MSME Development Agency last year.

The CBE’s financing will cover the cost of 80k cars that are part of the plan’s earlier phases, Amer said yesterday. Overall the plan will need 60 billion pounds to cover the cost of subsequent phases, Amer said.

Some 250k old cars will be taken off the road and outfitted with dual-fuel engines by the end of 2023 under the first phase of the plan. The first year aims to cover 70k cars that have been on the road for over 20 years — including 55k taxis and passenger cars and 15k microb