The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) studies offering credit facilities of EGP 100 million to help some indebted SMEs in tourism, construction, medicine and industry sectors. Yehia Aboul Fettouh, head of non-performing loans department, told Amwal Al Ghad that the Bank approved to offer EGP 10 million to a medical enterprise in Belbies in Sharkia indebted with EGP 50 million. NBE also approved to offer EGP 20 million to two construction projects in Cairo, EGP 60 million to a customer working in tourism and EGP 2 million to a factory for screws in Arish City. Aboul Fettouh asserted on the importance of supporting and financing SMEs as they represent the backbone of national economy and the basis for development. Therefore, NBE is giving much attention to these enterprises. NBE settled debts with value of EGP 600 million for the period from July 2011 to March 2012, as non-performing loans reached EGP 7.4 billion at the end of March 2012, compared with EGP 8 billion at the end of June 2011. NBE targets decreasing non-performing loans portfolio to EGP 7 billion by the end of the current fiscal year.
