Leila El-Mokaddem, the resident representative of the African Development Bank (AFDB) in Egypt, said that Egypt will receive the second tranche of the bank's loan, amounting to $500m, within two weeks maximum. The AFDB's board of directors approved the second tranche of the $1.5bn loan, which was previously approved in December 2016 to run for three years, to finance the Egyptian general budget. The Egyptian government has recently conducted a number of economic reforms within a programme that had been agreed upon with international financial institutions. These included the Value Added Tax Law, increases of the prices of petroleum products, and the liberalisation of the currency exchange rate. The Egyptian foreign exchange reserves have increased to $26.36bn in January, compared to $24.26bn in December. El-Mokaddem added that the government has implemented the agreed-upon reforms, pointing out that the bank did not delay payment of the second tranche, but that they need some time to complete some revisions and approvals inside the bank in preparation for the payment of the second tranche. She said that talks about the third and final tranche of the loan, amounting to another $500m, will begin in the coming months. El-Mokaddem revealed that the Egyptian government called for the AFDB to finance the establishment of a sewage plant in Abu Rawash, worth about $150-250m. It is scheduled that the government will send the required documents for the project during the next week for discussion, according to El-Mokaddem.
