SMEs portfolio reaches LE 37.5B: NBE

CAIRO – 28 November 2017: The National Bank of Egypt's (NBE) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) portfolio has registered LE 37.5 billion ($2.1 billion), Deputy General Manager of SME Finance Mohsen Ismail said during a conference on Tuesday.

In late June, the NBE's SMEs portfolio increased to LE 32 billion, Vice Chairperson of NBE Yehia Aboul Fotouh told Egypt Today.

The bank allocated LE 13 billion, out of the LE 37.5 billion, for the Central Bank of Egypt's initiative of saving LE 200 billion loans for the SMEs sector in Egypt, Ismail said.

Egypt started the strategy with a purview to enhance the micro and SMEs sector. The Central Bank of Egypt announced an initiative to fund Egyptian SMEs with LE 200 billion.

The volume of the loan portfolio of NBE hiked to LE 400 billion ($22.5 billion) by the end of the fiscal year 2016/2017.