By: Eslam Fadl
Cairo – Mubasher: The Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt (IDWBE) is considering pumping EGP 40 million into the commodity exchange for fruits and vegetables, the lender’s head of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector said.
The bank thus far has financed 126 clients in the commodity exchange with EGP 130 million, Tarek Galal told Mubasher in a phone call.
IDWBE provides financing of up to 70% of the units’ value in the bourse with a grace period of up to five years and an interest of 5% within the framework of the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) initiative, Galal added.
He unveiled that the bank is exclusively financing the first exchange for vegetables and fruits in Egypt and the MENA region that spans 57 acres in the governorate of Beheira.
The bank aims to fund the exchange with EGP 200 million by the end of this year.
IDWBE has invested around EGP 50 million into a number of associations in Upper Egypt since the beginning of this month and has funded four investors with EGP 10 million under the agreement of El Roubiki Leather City project, Galal noted.
He previously revealed that the banks’ SME portfolio amounted to around EGP 2.75 billion at the end of September that it aims to raise to EGP 3 billion by the end of the year.
Translated by: Mai Ezz El-Din
