By: Islam Fadl
Cairo – Mubasher: Banque du Caire aims to inject funding worth EGP 1.2 billion to micro-enteprirses during the second half of 2019, the lender's head of small, and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking sector, Nader Saad, said.
The state-run aims to raise its microfinance portfolio to EGP 7 billion by the end of 2019 from EGP 5.8 billion at the end of June, Saad told Mubasher.
Such funding will be directed to a slew of sectors in the country in the coming period, he added.
Moreover, the lender also seeks to increase its SME finance portfolio to EGP 6 billion at the end of the current year from EGP 4.4 billion at the end of last June, the top official revealed.
Funding provided to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises accounts for around 16% of the bank’s total credit portfolio, Saad noted.
During the first quarter of 2019, the Egyptian lender’s net profits after taxes soared by 199.2% year-on-year to EGP 1.218 billion, compared to EGP 407 million in the year-ago period.
The state-run bank’s profits before taxes amounted to EGP 1.51 billion in Q1-19 from EGP 921 million in Q1-18.
Translated by: Zeinab Adel
