National Bank of Egypt, EIB sign €500 SME loan

The National Bank of Egypt, the biggest state lender in the country, has signed Sunday a €500 million ($544 million) loan with the European Investment Bank to finance small and medium-sized projects.

The agreement was signed at the Egyptian Cabinet’s headquarters in Cairo in the presence of Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Minister of Finance Amr el-Garhy, and Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr.

NBE chairman Hisham Okasha has signed the agreement with with Dario Scannapieco, Vice-President of EIB.

The Egyptian bank signed in March 2015 a €120 million loan with the EIB for financing private sector companies. As part of the Private Sector Growth and Economic Development project, the loan is focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), implementing projects in the productive and services sectors.