NBE to raise SMEs portfolio to LE 44B by end of FY 2017/18

CAIRO – 10 September 2017: The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) targets raising its small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and microfinance portfolio to LE 44 billion ($2.5 billion) by the end of the current fiscal year (FY), the bank's head of retail banking said Sunday.

Hazem Hegazy, NBE head of retail banking, added to Egypt Today that the portfolio would increase through the addition of 18,000 new clients to the current 56,000 clients, registering LE 32.5 billion in June 2017.

The bank has put an integrated strategy to develop the electronic banking products offered to the clients, Hegazy said, noting that the NBE has launched a new online gate for its services, which allows clients to carry out transactions between accounts inside and outside the bank online.

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.

In July, NBE said that it will hike its interest rates on savings accounts by 0.5 percent as of August.

The NBE is the second public bank to hike interest rates after Banque du Caire, which raised its interest rates on Certificates by two percent.