Egypt's SMEs Development Agency, Banque Misr sign EGP 500m micro-enterprises finance

10,000 micro-loans will be provided across Egypt, with maximum of EGP 250,000 per loan

Egypt's Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) and Banque Misr have signed a contract worth EGP 500m that will go towards financing micro-enterprises.
Nevine Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry and MSMEDA CEO, along with Banque Misr Chairperson Mohamed El-Etreby witnessed the signing of the "Tamkeen Microfinance Project" contract.
The contract was signed by Tarek Shash, Deputy Executive Director of MSMEDA, and Akef El Maghraby, Vice Chairperson of Banque Misr, with MSMEDA to provide the financing.
Gamea said that, according to the contract, about 10,000 micro-loans will be provided across Egypt, with a maximum of EGP 250,000 per loan, based on the production and marketing capabilities of each enterprise.
The minister added that signing this contract will help expand the financing of micro-enterprises of all types, including production, commercial, service, handicrafts and heritage activities in various villages, centres and districts. It will focus especially on the villages targeted by the presidential "Decent Life" initiative.
She explained that the microfinance contracts concluded between MSMEDA and Banque Misr began in 2011, and have so far reached a total value of about EGP 1.81bn.
These amounts were used as revolving loans, through which about 215,000 micro-projects were financed with an amount of about EGP 2.8bn. They were provided at the bank's multiple branches all over the country.
For his part, El-Etreby stressed that his bank attaches great attention to the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector, by providing all financial and non-financial services to meet the needs of the sector's clients.
The bank was also one of the first banks to adhere to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) requirements, and increased its SMEs financing portfolio to 20% of its total credit portfolio.
Meanwhile, Shash indicated that the volume of financing provided to micro-enterprises has doubled during the past seven years, reaching EGP 14.4bn from July 2014 to April 2021. It has helped create more than 1.6 million job opportunities.
Akef Al-Maghraby, Vice Chairperson of Banque Misr, said that the value of the MSMEs portfolio, both standard and Islamic, amounted to about EGP 37.7bn. The number of clients in the SMEs portfolio reached 184,000 in June 2020, compared to 121,000 in June 2019, an increase of 63,000 customers with a growth rate of 52%.
He added that Banque Misr has partnered with the Ministry of Local Development in the "Your Project" programme with the aim of financing micro and small enterprises through the one-stop shop in local units present across the country. Loans were issued to 99,000 customers worth EGP 9.9bn until the end of June 2020.
Nevine Badr El-Din, head of the Central Microfinance Sector at MSMEDA, confirmed that the new Small Enterprises Development Law No 152 of 2020 will allow for the expansion of financing in this sector. This is set to have a positive effect on job opportunities for women and youth.
On the other hand, she added that the agency is coordinating with the parties concerned with developing the performance of NGOs to raise their efficiency and help them develop service delivery mechanisms. This will enable the agency to reach the largest number possible of target groups.