09 April 2014
National Bank of Egypt (NBE) aims to increase loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by 26% this year to support growth of this segment in the Egyptian market, Chairman Hisham Ahmed Okasha told Zawya in an interview.
National Bank of Egypt (NBE) aims to increase loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by 26% this year to support growth of this segment in the Egyptian market, Chairman Hisham Ahmed Okasha told Zawya in an interview.
"Its current value is EGP 10.5 billion and we aim to increase it by around EGP 1.5 billion in the second half of this year," Okasha said.
He said that Egyptian banks had extended loans worth a total of EGP 35 billion (USD 5.02 billion) to small and medium enterprises in 2013, up from EGP 20 billion in 2011.
Okasha criticized the lack of financing for SMEs in the Arab World, saying that only 22% of projects receive funding from banks.
He said NBE also has a plan to open 200 new branches in the next three years.
The bank is preparing to partner with real estate developers on financing low-income housing. NBE received EGP 3 billion from the first package released as part of the central bank's housing initiative.
© Zawya BusinessPulse 2014
