The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has allocated EGP 220 million for financing 130 brick factories in Al Saf City in Helwan to make them run on natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil (mazot), sources told Amwal Al Ghad. The factories will receive such finances from this month and until March, 2013. Each factory will receive a finance ranging from EGP 900,000 to EGP 2 million, varying according to the sizes of the ovens and units of each factory. The bank considers financing 19,000 bakeries in Cairo in order to use natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil. Sources at the bank said that financing this process in one bakery costs about EGP 40-50 thousand, varying according to the areas of these bakeries. Such moves came as part of NBE's efforts in reducing the emissions produced by factories powered by diesel and heavy fuel oil. In addition, NBE had earlier financed 200 brick factories in Arab Abu Saed in Giza to use natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil and diesel. The cost of delivering natural gas to these factories is about EGP 140 million. NBE offered about EGP 3.3 billion finances to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by the end of FY 2011/2012, while the value of SME finance contracts NBE signed with the Social Fund for Development reached EGP 5 billion.
