Soha Soliman, Head of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), said the NBE is currently negotiating with the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the German government-owned development bank (KFW) so as to obtain $ 250 million concessional facilities for SMEs. Soliman added in an exclusive to Amwal al Ghad that the negotiations are about to complete despite the current economic crises which passed by Egypt, pointing out that Egypt will recover again as it has the most attractive market. Soliman has explained that NBE is targeting to pump additional financing for SMEs worth EGP 6 billion within FY13/14, recording EGP 3 billion net increase to SMEs portfolio, so the total portfolio value up EGP 12.5 billion. She has emphasized that the total financing pumped by NBE reached EGP 4.6 billion with 16.5 K clients within the last FY June 2013. She further has noted that the total portfolio for financing SMEs up EGP 9.4 billion with 37 K clients at the end of June 2013. Moreover, according to NBE's future strategy, Soliman added that the bank is seeking to expand its financing in SMEs during the coming period throughout new mechanisms.
