EBRD promotes Egypt's international trade with $10M loan to ABK-Egypt

CAIRO – 14 November 2017: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed Tuesday a $10-million trade facility agreement with Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait–Egypt (ABK–Egypt), to promote the expansion of international trade under the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Program (TFP).

The EBRD’s TFP supports foreign trade to, from and within the Bank’s countries of operations, including Egypt, the international lender said in a statement following the signing.

Through the facility, the EBRD provides guarantees in favor of international commercial banks covering the commercial payment risk of the transactions undertaken by ABK-Egypt which is now one of the 11 issuing banks under the TFP in Egypt.

Also, the EBRD will also offer additional limits and longer tenors for guarantee transactions that are predicted to be used mainly for the import of machinery and equipment.

Commenting on the signing of the trade facility, EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti said: “We are very pleased to welcome ABK-Egypt to our Trade Facilitation Programme, which will allow the bank to better meet the trade finance needs of its clients and enhance trade, thus contributing to the country’s overall economic growth.”

Khaled El Salawy, CEO and Managing Director of ABK-Egypt, said: “Capitalizing on our vast experience in trade finance and our large network of global correspondent banks, this cooperation with the EBRD will allow ABK-Egypt to further expand its trade finance operations to new untapped areas.

Such valuable partnerships support the bank in pursuing its proactive strategy to provide innovative trade finance solutions that meet our clients’ needs and help them grow their business.”

Running since 1999, the EBRD’s TFP currently includes over 100 partner banks in 28 countries where the bank invests and more than 800 confirming banks worldwide.

Since 2012 to date, Egypt which is a founding member of the EBRD, has been receiving investments worth €3 billion in 66 projects in the country.

The EBRD’s investments focus on financial sector, agribusiness, and manufacturing and services, as well as infrastructure projects such as power, municipal water and wastewater services, and support for transport services.