Cairo – Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to amend the measures of its earlier initiative in respect to financing small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).
CBE decided to allow banks to provide loans to performing clients at a 7 %t reduced interest rate over periods of up to 10 years to finance new machinery, equipment, and production lines, according to a press statement.
Last month, the CBE issued a directive requiring banks to allocate 20% of their total loaning portfolio for SMEs, with interest rates of up to 5% imposed on firms generating between EGP 1 million and 20 million a year in revenue.
The instructions come in the framework of an initiative launched last January by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who announced that Egypt’s banks would give EGP 200 billion in loans to small and medium enterprises over the next four years.
