IFC to invest $150M to develop Egypt’s agriculture sector

CAIRO - 23 September 2017: The Executive Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) agreed on Friday to invest $150 million in Egypt’s agriculture sector, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, Sahar Nasr, said in a statement Saturday.

The investments are in light of the partnership between the government and the private sector, aiming to improve the food sector through the use of latest technology in manufacturing.

The decision came after one day from the meeting between President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi and Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group (WBG) Thursday, on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

During the meeting, they agreed on increasing cooperation between Egypt and all the bank’s affiliates, including the IFC.

Nasr noted that the decision also came four days after the executive board of the International Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), one of WBG’s agencies, pledged $210 million to a number of international companies involved in a “huge” project to produce solar energy in Egypt.

With investments exceeding $2 billion, the project involves six groups of international and local private sector companies that will construct 11 solar plants in Egypt with at a total capacity of 490MW.