Egypt’s United Bank ups SMEs finances to EGP3.3 bln

The United Bank increases its SMEs portfolio to 3.3 billion Egyptian pound ($199.4 million)  by the end of June 2019 as part of CBE initiative, Chairman of the bank Ashraf El-Kady told Amwal Al Ghad.

Total loans that banks issued within the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) initiative to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently amount to 137.7  billion Egyptian pounds until the end of first quarter of 2019 to 545,000 beneficiaries.

The small projects  amounted to 79.3 billion pounds, while the volume of financing for micro projects registered 12.4 billion pounds. in addition medium-sized enterprises was financed with 46 billion pounds.

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.

The banks are to offer around 200 billion pounds to finance 350,000 companies and thus creating job opportunities for more than four million people.