SMEs authority signs LE50M contract with United Bank

CAIRO - 20 September 2017: The Small and Medium Enterprises Authority signed a LE 50 million agreement Wednesday with the United Bank to support SMEs in all governorates, according to an official statement.

The agreement is to finance purchasing machineries, equipment and construction of small- and medium-sized projects with economic feasibility, head of the authority Nevine Gamea' said.

The LE 50 million will be provided by the authority and the bank, each will contribute LE 25 million, and will be used to finance 180 projects, create more than 1,600 jobs.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Authority has provided various projects with a total value of LE 3.5 billion from January to July 2017, Gamea' said during the signing ceremony.

"Since 2012 to August 2017, the United Bank has sealed five funding contracts with small and medium projects with a total value of LE 395 million," the bank's chairman Ashraf el-Kady said.

Some 17,000 SMEs were established in 2017, with total finances of LE 19 billion ($1.1 billion), Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer said last week.