Egypt Microfinance projects exceed 400 billion pounds

Mohamed El-Antabli, head of the Small and Medium Enterprises Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Banks and head of the Small and Medium Enterprises Sector at Banque Misr, revealed that the overall size of the financing portfolio of medium, small and micro enterprises in the banks operating in the Egyptian market, that is in course implemented within the framework of the state strategy And the Central Bank’s initiatives surpassed £ 400 billion by the end of last year 2021.

Al-Antabli said in his statements today that the Central Bank’s initiatives in support of small and medium-sized enterprises in late 2015 and early 2016 represent a milestone for the small and medium-sized business sector as one of the main drivers of economic growth, especially in light of the growing need to create job opportunities, tackle the problem of unemployment and increase rates of economic and social development.

He added that the Central Bank of Egypt established a unified definition for medium, small and micro enterprises, which was applied as a unified national definition within the law on small and medium-sized enterprises, and thus obliged the banks to manage the 20 % of their credit portfolios to finance such projects, before raising tale percentage to 25%, provided that it is not lower than The percentage devoted to small projects is 10%.

Egyptian pound
Egyptian pound

He explained that in order to guarantee and help the banks reach the expected percentages of these loans, the Central Bank has launched a series of financing initiatives at reduced interest rates, including the initiative of small projects with a yield of 5% and average projects with a return of 8%, and other initiatives that ended with a return of 7% and 12%, as well as continuing the commitment of the Central Bank to the credit risk guarantee company for a value of two billion pounds to cover part of the risks associated with financing these projects.

El-Antabli pointed out that some banks have managed to achieve the objectives of the Central Bank of Egypt and reach 25% of their credit portfolio in favor of small, medium and micro enterprises, and other banks are still working on this, noting that the Banks Union is currently working on a plan to help these banks achieve targeted percentages of their credit portfolios in compliance with the directives of the Central Bank of Egypt.

He stressed that the initiatives of the Central Bank of Egypt have led to unprecedented leaps in the volume of loans granted to small, medium and micro enterprises, and there are no longer any difficulties in obtaining these projects with financing, especially with the development that has happened in the eyes of the banks in the light of the directives and decisions of the Central Bank, which made the banks a role of Consultant for the owners of these projects and not just a lender.

The head of the Small and Medium Enterprises Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Banks and the Head of the Small and Medium Enterprises Sector at Banque Misr stressed that the belief of the State and the Central Bank in the sector of small, medium and micro enterprises reflects the great importance of this sector in achieving economic development. Emphasize that the greater the contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises to GDP and the lower the contribution of the informal sector, the more countries’ economies would rank among high-income economies and vice versa, especially since the returns from these projects accumulate rapidly. for individuals and families, according to World Bank studies.

Mohamed El-Antabli, Chairman of the Small and Medium Business Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Banks and Head of the Small and Medium Business Sector at Banque Misr, said that the Egyptian economy is huge and diverse and characterized by geographical features, cultural and sectoral initiatives, the Central Bank has launched numerous complementary initiatives in order to complete the labor system and achieve its goal, from Through initiatives to provide non-financial services for the owners of small, medium and micro enterprises.

He added that among these initiatives is the Nile Pioneers Initiative, which aims to provide consultancy and assistance services in the creation of projects and in the concretization of ideas. in reality, and assistance in the expansion and preparation of feasibility studies, as well as awareness and knowledge services, among others, and the creation of specialized units within banks to service these projects in addition to programs Another initiative to support young people, entrepreneurs, owners of ideas e start-up, small and medium-sized enterprises, where non-financial services are an essential part of the work provided by banks to realize the concept of global banking.

Al-Antabli pointed out that the Nile Pioneers Initiative has managed to create a boom in the field of entrepreneurship in Egypt and, given this great success of the initiative, the Union of Banks aims, in coordination with the Central Bank, to double the number of banks by participating in the initiative.

Al-Antabli found that the performance of banks for the financing of small and medium-sized projects have recorded a great leap with the support of the initiatives and directives of the Central Bank, both in terms of increasing the number of customers and financing rates, underlining that with the start of the implementation of the digital transformation strategy in banks and the start of the creation of digital products that facilitate the process of obtaining funds, large segments of firms in the informal sector have begun to shift towards the formal economy.

Regarding Banque Misr, Mohamed El-Antabli, head of the Small and Medium Business Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Banks and head of the Small and Medium Business Sector at Banque Misr, explained that the bank is the first bank in Egypt to achieve the Central Bank’s objectives for financing small, medium and micro enterprises, and has even exceeded the percentage, bringing the percentage of financing to 27% of the volume The loan portfolio since last June, and this reflects the great interest that the bank attributes to this sector.

The Egyptian economy is suitable
The Egyptian economy is suitable

Mohamed El-Antabli, head of the Committee for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at the Federation of Egyptian Banks and head of the SME sector at Banque Misr, indicated that the bank’s strategy focuses on all regions of the republic, not only Greater Cairo and Alexandria, in in line with the countries’ development strategy, noting that the first digital loan (Express) he launched At the end of 2020 the bank pumped 15 billion pounds in 14 months, benefiting 15,000 customers, most of which are the governorates of Upper Egypt, followed by the governorates of Delta, Cairo and Alexandria.

It revealed that the portfolio size of small, media e Banque Misr microfinance amounted to £ 61 billion, benefiting 179,000 clients by the end of November 2021.

As for microloans, El-Antabli explained that the bank’s portfolio is the largest in Egypt, equal to 11.5 billion pounds, and the number of beneficiaries is about 139 thousand customers The bank also disbursed the first instant loan in Egypt via tablet, whose portfolio amounted to £ 925 million, benefiting approximately 14,000 clients, as well as helping 7,000 clients transferred from the informal to the formal sector, worth approximately 908 million.

Read More About: Business News

Follow AsumeTech on

More From Category

More Stories Today

Leave a Reply