By: Islam Fadl
Cairo – Mubasher: Banque Misr, Egypt’s second largest state-run lender, is planning to inject EGP 4 billion in finance during the second six months of the fiscal year 2019/2020 to support small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), head of the bank’s SMEs and microfinance department, Sherif El-Behery, told Mubasher on Wednesday.
The bank’s SMEs portfolio reached EGP 30 billion at the end of December 2019, El-Behery said, adding that the bank is planning to increase the portfolio to EGP 34 billion by the end of June 2020.
The top official noted that Banque Misr has exceeded the limit set by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) for banks’ SMEs portfolios.
In January 2016, the CBE had compelled national banks to allocate 20% of their credit portfolio to fund SMEs in four years.
Moreover, Banque Misr injected EGP 8 billion investments under ‘Mashrou'ak’ initiative, El-Behery revealed.
