Cairo Mubasher: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Tuesday announced that it will provide Banque Misr with a $75 million loan to promote the growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt.

Although SMEs make up more than 90% of the Egyptian enterprises and account for a reasonable portion of jobs in the country, access to fund them continues to be limited, the EBRD stated.

“The EBRD credit line to Banque Misr will increase the availability of funding for SMEs by reaching out to new clients and regions outside the Greater Cairo region and Alexandria,” the bank added.

Our main aim is to promote the development of SMEs in Egypt, Mohamed El Etreby, Banque Misr’s chairman said, noting that developing SME’s is critical for Egypt’s economy and will therefore be backed by the cooperation between Banque Misr and the EBRD. 

“Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and increasing the availability of finance for this sector will contribute towards making the country’s economy more competitive and resilient,” said Suma Chakrabarti, the EBRD President.

Egypt, an EBRD founding member, has received EUR 2.7 billion in investments from the bank since 2012 to date.