NBE To Meet Experts In SME Finance Next Week

The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) will meet with a number of experts and senior officials of the American Charity Organization who are specialized in financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to develop the bank’s methods in financing SMEs which are attracting attention from the state’s institutions in the current period.

Sources told Amwal Al Ghad that NBE will consult the experts in the methods of making encouraging the owners of SMEs to get licenses. The American Charity Organization will provide the bank with technical support free of charge.

The bank’s portfolio of SME finances reached about EGP 8.6 billion at the end of last June, after increasing it by about 2.5 billion in the last two years. The bank targets to increase this portfolio by EGP one billion in the upcoming period.

It is worth mentioning that NBE signed an agreement last Tuesday with China Development Bank (CBD) to receive a loan amounting to US$200 million to finance SMEs. In addition, NBE is in talks with China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China to receive financing package of US$ 800 million that will go for SMEs.