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Banks inject EGP 146bn funding to SMEs under CBE initiative

Banks inject EGP 146bn funding to SMEs under CBE initiative
Banks allocate at least 20% of their credit portfolio to SMEs

By: Islam Fadl

Cairo – Mubasher: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have secured a total banking funding of EGP 146 billion under the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) initiative, chairman of Banque Misr, Mohamed El-Etreby, said.

The CBE has offered banks many incentives to finance the SME sector including requiring lenders to allocate at least 20% of their credit portfolio to SMEs, El-Etreby added during a workshop organised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) in Cairo on Monday.

Under the initiative, banks offer SMEs soft loans with interest rates of 5% and 7%, he noted.

SMEs contribute 33% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of developing countries, while their contribution to GDP reaches 59% in developed countries, he indicated.