SFD Egypt Obtains EU’s €15 million Grant in March

Egypt’s Social Fund for Development (SFD) will receive next March the second tranche worth €15 million of the European Union’s €45 million grant.

This comes within the framework of the recently-signed finance agreement between the SFD and the EU.

In earlier statements to Amwal Al Ghad’s Arabic website, Hanaa El Hilaly – Director general at Egypt’s SFD – said her fund is currently in talks with the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement AFD) to get loans worth €95 million. The loans are designated to finance SMEs projects in Egypt.

She stated that her fund is aiming to obtain a €80 million loan in addition to a grant at value of €15 million from the AFD so as to finance SMEs projects.

Moreover, Egypt’s SFD intends to get loans amounting to US$ 400 million next March from UAE’s Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development ( Khalifa Fund ) and the Saudi Fund for Development. The USD400 mln loans are designated to finance small, micro and medium enterprises in Egypt.

In this regard, El Hilaly stated that her fund has signed a memorandum of understanding with Khalifa Fund, whereas the definitive loan agreements will be inked within next month. For this loan, the payments are due within 15 years, she noted, outlining joint efforts to boost development and opportunities for small and micro-sized enterprises in Egypt.

The Egyptian official further revealed ongoing negotiations with the Saudi Fund for Development over a loan worth US$ 200 million. She said the talks are still at the beginning and are expected to finish by the end of first quarter of 2014.

She also noted that Egypt’s SFD is also 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.