French Development Agency Secures €95mn Finances for SMEs in Egypt

Egypt-based Social Fund for Development (SFD) signed on Monday a€95 million funding agreement with the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement AFD). The loan is designated to finance the SMEs enterprises in Egypt.

Speaking to Amwal Al Ghad’s Arabic website, SFD’s Acting  Secretary General  Hanaa El Hilaly said as pursuant to the agreement, SFD will receive a €80 million loan in addition to a €15 million grant so as to finance SMEs projects.

El Hilaly further noted that SFD is currently in talks with the World Bank over loan worth US$ 300 million, designed to finance labor intensive investment projects to create new job opportunities for the youth.

Egypt’s SFD has recently signed an agreement with the European Union to obtain a grant at value of €70 million.

In earlier statements, SFD’s former Secretary General Ghada Waly said the fund injected funding totaled around EGP 4.3 billion to the small and micro-sized projects during 2013.