The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) studies offering loans with value ranging from EGP 75 million to EGP 100 million to 50 brick factories in Behira in order to run on natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil. 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. The factories will receive such finances from this month and until March, 2013. Such moves came as part of NBE's contributions to environmental protection programs about 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.
