Housing and Development Bank to pump 3 bln Egyptian pounds into SMEs in 4yrs

By Yomna Yasser On Mar 16, 2016

Egyptian lender Housing and Development Bank (HDB) is planning to pump 3 billion Egyptian pounds ($335.2 million) into the country’s small and medium businesses in the next four years.

The bank’s current financing to the SME sector stood at 500 million pounds approximately.

In January, Egypt’s central bank launched an initiative to finance SMEs, and obliged banks to provide a minimum of 20 percent of their total loans portfolio to this sector within four years. Moreover, the CBE mandated that banks must submit a comprehensive outline indicating how they will implement the CBE’s recommendation.