NBE increases SMEs portfolio to EGP52bln in Sep. 2018

National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the country’s largest state bank, announced that it pumped total funds of 52 billion Egyptian pounds into small and medium enterprises SMEs during September 2018.

Mamdouh Afia – Head of SME Finance Group told Amwal Al Ghad that the bank has injected an amount of 27 billion pounds as part of the Central Bank of Egypt initiative for SMEs.

He addd that NBE seeks to increase the sector’s portfolio to 70 billion pounds by the end of the current fiscal year.

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 LE200 billion to finance 350,000 companies and thus create job opportunities for more than four million people.

He added that the bank focuses on a number of productive sectors within the small and medium enterprises portfolio to create more job opportunities mainly agriculture, industry, trade and services.