Cairo – Mubasher: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a $100 million funding deal with Banque Misr.

The funding will be on-lent to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which have been hit hardly by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al Mashat, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Moreover, EBRD will also increase an existing trade finance limit to Banque Misr by $100 million under the trade facilitation programme (TFP) to help meet the growing demand for import and export transactions.

Earlier, EBRD approved a $200 million loan to the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and granted the National Bank of Kuwait – Egypt (NBK Egypt) and the Commercial International Bank – Egypt (CIB) $100 million each to support the private sector amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Since the commencement of its operations in Egypt in 2012, EBRD has invested about EUR 6.5 billion in 115 projects in the most populous Arab nation.