Women contribute to the largest share of microfinance, accounting for nearly 50.2% of total funding, according to Mona Zulfikar, chairperson of the Egyptian Union of Microfinance. She added that 67.7% of microfinance's beneficiaries in Egypt are women. Meanwhile, Zulfikar declared that the total value of Egypt's micro-finance portfolio reached EGP17.7bn at the end of 2018, up from EGP 10.9bn in 2017, a hike of 63%. She said the active customer base in the sector increased by 25% in 2018 to reach 3.1 million clients, compared to only 2.5 million ones in 2017. According to the report issued by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) on the microfinance activity in Egypt, NGOs topped the bodies that provide microfinance. In that context, the chairperson of the Egyptian Union of Microfinance stated that the active portfolio of NGOs reached EGP 6bn, accounting for 35.4% of the total market by the end of last year, noting that its active customer base reached 1.9million, representing 60.5% from the total beneficiaries in Egypt. Meanwhile, companies ranked second in terms of the number of the beneficiaries in 2018, with a total number of beneficiaries of 875,000 clients, representing over 27.7% from the total number of beneficiaries last year. Furthermore, companies came in third place in terms of its microfinance's portfolio with a total active portfolio of EGP 5.2bn, representing 29.5% from Egypt's microfinance portfolio in the aforementioned period. Concerning banks, Zulfikar noted that banks, with 368,000 beneficiaries and with a a total portfolio of EGP 6.240m in 2018, acquire 37% of Egypt's microfinance portfolio in the market.
