Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt (IDWBE) seeks to increase microfinance portfolio to one billion Egyptian Pounds ($55.9 million) by the end of the first quarter of 2018, according to Tarek Galal the Head of SMEs sector at IDWBE. The bank's current microfinance portfolio has recorded 700 million Egyptian pounds, Galal added. The Bank is currently in talks with the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Authority over a contract worth 50 million pounds to fund associations operating in small sized enterprises financing field, category ‘B'. On the other hand, Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority – EFSA has categorized the NGOs into 3 categories according to its microfinance portfolio, whereas as category "A" portfolio exceeds 50 million Egyptian pounds, Category "B" is lower than 50 million pounds and Category " C" is less than 10 million pounds. Galal noted that the Banks SMEs projects portfolio has recorded 2 billion pounds during 2017. In addition, it aims at achieving growth rates ranging between 40 percent and 50 percent in the SMEs sector.
