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Industrial Development Bank negotiates with SFD to fund micro-enterprises AfDB financed SFD with $72m for the Rural Income and Economic Enhancement Project
The Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt (IDBE) obtained a total of EGP 330m from the Social Fund for Development (SFD) to support micro and small enterprises (MSEs), IDBE Chairman El-Sayed El-Kosayer said. El-Kosayer said IDBE pumped about 90% of these funds into the market, and the bank is currently negotiating more funding with the SFD to re-inject into MSEs. The African Development Bank (AfDB) provided $72m to finance the Rural Income and Economic Enhancement Project in cooperation with the SFD, according to the AfDB. During the project's closing ceremony, the bank announced that the financing was composed of two components. The bank said that the first came in the form of providing $70m line of credit valid for MSEs nationwide through the SFD and its partner financial intermediaries. The other component amounted to $2m in technical assistance to build capacities in value-chain development and in agribusiness lending with a geographic focus on Upper Egypt. The fund was disbursed and channeled through the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, the Industrial Development and Workers Bank, SFD, and 20 NGOs. There were 78,747 MSEs funded in the project, and 33,961 enterprises that benefited women, in addition to 71,321 jobs created. The project's goal was to improve the socio-economic conditions of the economically active rural smallholder farmers engaged in the production. For her part, Principal Socio-Economist in the AfDB Egypt Field Office Gehane El-Sokkary said since the start of the project in 2011, the bank faced challenges executing the projects, with the security situation at the top of these challenges. El-Sokkary said some foreign consulting firms rejected to participate due to fears of the security situation at the time.
