The Social Fund for Development (SFD) will implement a new system to provide youths with Musharaka, Murabaha and Mudaraba products at 0% interest rate in order to establish small enterprises, said Ghada Wali, secretary general of SFD. During her visit to Sharkia's governor Hassan El-Naggar, Wali said SFD signed contracts worth EGP 450 million with a number of new Islamic banks in order to finance small enterprises. SFD signed a finance contract worth EGP 200 million with Al Baraka Bank Egypt, a finance contract worth EGP 100 million with the United Bank and a finance contract worth EGP 150 million with the National Bank of Egypt (NBE). SFD targets to achieve real social development through improving infrastructure and providing more job opportunities. About 22,000 small enterprises were financed with more than EGP 500 million in 2011. Sharkia Governorate is one of the largest and most important governorates in Egypt according to area and population. For such reason, SFD offered EGP 117 million finance to 1161 small enterprises, 662 projects through intermediaries and 500 projects through direct finance in Sharkia during this year, she noted. SFD delivered drinking water to villages in Sharkia through pipes along 31 km and agreed with the Governor on delivering drinking water to needy areas through pipes along 35 km. SFD also works on financing seven other infrastructure projects, she added. In addition, SFD will expand in holding marketing exhibitions for the products of the small enterprises. Finally, Ghada Wali stressed on the importance of concerted efforts of government bodies and institutions for following up the projects which were financed by SFD.
