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Major leap in performance of Agricultural Bank of Egypt by end of 1H 2022 More than EGP 60bn in loans, and the deposit portfolio jumped to about EGP 120bn
The Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE) achieved a significant leap in performance indicators during the first half (1H) of 2022. The bank said in a statement on Sunday that the business results achieved by the bank at the end of June 2022 translated the accelerating success achieved by the comprehensive development plan that the bank is currently implementing in all its sectors to improve the quality of its banking and financial services to meet the needs of its customers. It also allows the bank to exercise its role as one of the largest banking institutions specialised in financing agricultural projects and major industrial activities, and enhances the bank's efforts to stimulate investment in the agricultural sector in all its productive fields as per the directives of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and in a manner that achieves the state's vision of maximising the preferential advantages enjoyed by the agricultural sector to support the national economy and achieve food security. According to the bank, the size of its loan portfolio at the end of June 2022 amounted to about EGP 60.288bn, compared to EGP 56bn at the end of 2021 — a growth rate of 7%. Meanwhile, the growth rate of deposits reached 24%, jumping from EGP 92bn to more than EGP 119.329bn. The ABE also pointed out that medium, small, and micro enterprises accounted for 70% of the loan portfolio, noting that the volume of financing micro-projects for individuals and companies amounted to about EGP 34.444bn benefiting 452,765 customers, while the number of small companies increased to 6,748 companies with a financing volume of EGP 4.903bn. The number of medium-sized companies also increased to 82 with a financing volume of EGP 1.978bn. In the same context, the number of major companies financed by the bank increased to 94 companies, with financings amounting to about EGP 7.886bn, representing 13% of the volume of the loan portfolio. The bank also doubled the volume of financing directed to agricultural loans to reach about EGP 7.6bn, benefiting about 280,000 farmers. Furthermore, the volume of financing livestock projects amounted to about EGP 13bn, compared to 2021's EGP 11.922bn, indicating that it pumped EGP 4.950bn to the national project to revive veal, the funds of which were granted to more than 18,500 beneficiaries to raise about 238,000 cattle heads. The bank is also currently focusing heavily on expanding programmes to finance the transformation of modern irrigation systems in coordination with the agriculture and irrigation ministries as per the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) initiative to provide EGP 55bn to finance the transformation of modern irrigation systems without interest and in equal annual instalments for a period of 10 years. The bank is also working to accelerate the pace of financing for the implementation of the national project for the establishment and development of milk collection centres, as well as the implementation of initiatives to finance the uses of solar energy in agriculture and agricultural mechanisation, in addition to intensifying its efforts to direct all its capabilities to support and finance the beneficiaries of major agricultural reclamation projects — such as the 1.5m Feddans Project, New Delta, The Future of Egypt, Toshka, and major agricultural projects in the New Valley. Contract agriculture also received a large share of the bank's interest, which contributed to increasing the volume of financing directed to certain crops, especially with strawberries in Qaliubiya and sugar beet in Kafr Al-Sheikh. The bank is also associated with sugar factories in tripartite contracts with farmers to supply cane in Upper Egypt.
