SMEs body considers women, Upper Egypt special funding

CAIRO – 17 August 2017: The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and Micro-small authority wants to amend law no. 141/2004, which organizes work of SMEs, to allow special funding for women and Upper Egypt projects, head of authority Nevine Gamea said Thursday.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Industry, Gamea said the SMEs regulations have become “incompatible” with the current economic conditions, especially after the flotation of the Egyptian pound.

“The authority is focusing on neediest villages in Upper Egypt and women-run projects through introducing new financial allocations for them,” Gamea said, adding that the authority also seeks increasing the maximum limit of funding agri-industrial projects from LE 2 million to LE 5 million ($112,660 to $281,650).

Credit limit of non-governmental organizations’ funding was raised from LE 25 million to LE 50 million, and the maximum limit of non-banking financial institutions was also hiked to LE 75 million from LE 50 million.

The Cabinet approved in April the formation of the new SME body, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Industry Ministry, to be responsible for startups and SMEs in Egypt.

The establishment of the agency comes in light of the Trade Ministry’s strategy to develop SMEs, which it said represents more than 75 percent of the Egyptian economy.