Egypt's Social Fund for Development (SFD) pumped funding totaled around EGP4.3 billion for the SME projects within the current period, the fund's Secretary General Ghada Waly announced on Monday. SFD has succeeded in providing around one million job opportunities in Upper Egypt besides carrying out infrastructure programmes, she noted. In a keynote speech at the second day of MEDA Finance 2014 event in Cairo on Monday, Waly stated that SFD deals with 40 banks operating in Egypt's banking sector to support small and micro projects and to finance non-governmental organizations and societies. Notwithstanding the ongoing challenges, Egypt is still a promising market for the financial institutions to achieve profits, Waly said. "The Lack of creative financial products to meet with the needs of 90 million people represents one of the key challenges faced by the market, which in return drives the country to import the expertise of international partners in this field." She noted Moreover, Waly stressed the need to support entrepreneurs within the coming period. The third Euro-Mediterranean Conference and Exhibition on Donor Funding, Banking and Novel Funding Instruments, under the title of MEDA Finance 2014, kicked off on Sunday in Cairo. Under the auspice of interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, the two-day conference aims to provide private sector businesses in the Mediterranean region with a total funding of $22m from international development agencies in the form of grants, technical assistance and credit lines.
