The total volume of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) finance portfolio at Banque Misr reached EGP 4.4bn at the end of June 2017. According to a statement by the bank, it funds small, medium, and micro enterprises through its branches spread throughout all governorates for various industrial, agricultural, and service fields. It added that the bank was involved with the Ministry of Local Development in the Mashorak programme, which was launched in March 2015, with the aim of funding micro and very small enterprises through the 308 one-stop shops in local councils across Egypt. The bank has offices in 238 of them with a 77% presence ratio. According to the bank, the loans granted to all micro-enterprises have reached EGP 1.3bn to 58,634 clients until the end of June 2017. In collaboration with a specialised consulting firm, Banque Misr has implemented the first training programme for clients and investors in Alexandria, based on the role they play in supporting the Egyptian economy and supporting small, medium, and micro enterprises. The programme discusses how to market and plan sales, as well as other aspects of the project management, along with the problems facing clients in their existing projects, and helps entrepreneurs maximise their capital utilisation and reduce risks. According to the bank, the idea of designing a specialised programme to train SME clients and entrepreneurs to encourage young people to set up small and medium enterprises and to make the entrepreneurial culture a reality on the ground is an integral part of the SME support system through its participation in the initiative by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to support small and medium enterprises, in order to combat unemployment and increase the GDP, reflecting on economic indicators and achieving sustainable development. He stressed that the bank is keen to follow up on its clients periodically and provide advice to them and help them to achieve success and progress, believing that small and medium enterprises are the locomotive of economic growth towards achieving sustainable development.
