Egypt’s MSME agency negotiating $300 mln World Bank financing package

By mohamed Hamdy On Jul 16, 2018

Nevine Gamea – Head of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (MSMEDA)

Egypt’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) is negotiating a $300 million financing package from the World Bank, chairperson Nevine Gamea said on Monday.

MSMEDA, previously known as the Social Fund for Development, is an autonomous development and poverty-alleviation agency, established in 1991 with support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It is an agency affiliated to Egypt’s Cabinet, designed to act as a social safety net to undertake the government’s economic reform programme by developing the MSME sector directly or through the coordination of the efforts of the different stakeholders.

The Egyptian MSMEs authority has pumped 2.4 billion Egyptian pounds ($134.1 million) to finance several local micro, small, and medium-sized projects and businesses in the first five months of the year, Gamea said.

“We plan to reach 6 billion pounds in financing by the end of the year,” Gamea said, adding that her agency has allocated around 170 million pounds for a number of local leasing firms.