Egypt’s Banque du Caire to increase SME loans to EGP 22 billion year-end

Egypt’s Banque du Caire aims to expand its financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to 22 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.4 billion) by end of the year, a senior official said on Sunday.

The bank, Egypt’s third largest public state-lender, has registered SME financing worth 18 billion pounds at the end of June, its head of SME banking sector Nader Saad said at an economic conference in Cairo.

SMEs are capturing a 17.5 percent share of Banque du Caire’s total financing, Saad noted, saying the bank plans to raise to the share to 25 percent by 2022.

The bank has committed 9 billion pounds in loans to SMEs as part of the Egyptian central bank’s initiative, he added.