Commercial International Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are currently negotiating with Social Fund for Development to sign new funding contracts, which will be directed to finance SMEs. Essam El-Korashy, head of SMEs Development Group at SFD, said that there are initial negotiations with both banks and declined to say the value of these contracts till the final agreement. El-Korashy added that there are negotiations with National Bank of Egypt and United Bank to have Islamic finance “Murabaha" to finance SMEs. SFD intends to increase loan portfolio for SMEs by one billion Egyptian pound by the end of 2012 so as to register EGP 5 billion, up from EGP 4 billion in 2011. Noteworthy that SFD signed funding contracts with banks in value to EGP 500 million as Industrial Development Bank signed a EGP 180 million contract , Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit signed a EGP 150 million contract, Bank Audi signed a EGP 35 million contract, Misr Iran Bank signed a EGP 100 million contract and other banks such as NBE.
