CBE: Egyptian banks have secured $6.14 bln for 451,000 SMEs in 3 years

Egyptian banks have financed 451,000 small and medium-sized projects with 110 billion Egyptian pounds ($6.14 billion) over the last three years since the central bank launched its SMEs initiative, assistant sub-governor Nermine El Tahri said on Wednesday.

El Tahri told Amwal Al Ghad on the sidelines of “People and Banks” conference that the small enterprises funds have increased to 62 billion pounds while the micro enterprises have climbed to 9 billion pounds compared to 5 billion pounds in March 2017.

She further noted that the commercial and service sector has captured the greater percentage of the initiative.

In 2016, the CBE announced an initiative to finance SMEs. Under the initiative, 20 per cent of bank loans should be allocated to SMEs within four years.