Egyptian banks increased their SMEs credit by EGP 136bn from end-2015 till end-2018, benefiting about 522,000 foundations, Gamal Negm, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), said on Tuesday. The banking sector allocated 65% of its loans to the private sector, Negm said before an IMF conference on its paper about Financial Inclusion of SMEs in the Middle East and Central Asia. Negm told Daily News Egypt, "We [CBE] plan to move our head office to the New Administrative Capital." The IMf's Director in Middle East and Central Asia, Jihad Azour, told DNE that the IMF will release a new paper covering the SME in the Arab region in April during the Arab finance ministers next meeting in Kuwait. Reem El-Saady, principal manager, Advice for Small Business Programme at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), called the CBE to assess its SMEs finance initiative. "We will be eager to support this proposed assessment and expose the success stories of the entrepreneurs."
