The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) will sign a cooperation protocol with the Division of Food Industries of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce next month to develop and strengthen the operational capital of retail stores. The bank currently plans to develop 150,000 food retail stores with value of finance that starts from EGP 10,000 for each, said Soha Soliman, head of SME finance department at NBE. Soliman affirmed the bank's interest in financing all industries including micro, small and medium enterprises which are considered the backbone of national economy. The bank has set some conditions for financing these stores such the compliance with environmental standards and the optimal use of raw materials. NBE has about 22% of the SME customers who deal with the banking sector in Egypt. The bank's SME finance portfolio registered EGP 8.6 billion at the end of June 2012 after offering about 8,700 SMEs with EGP 3.2 billion worth of finances in FY 2011/2012. The bank's SME customers reached about 33,000.
