OFID offers 2 grants to Egyptian organizations for $380K

CAIRO – 18 September 2018: The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) provided grants to the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

OFID said in a statement that its Director-General Suleiman J Al-Herbish signed both grant agreements in Egypt.

The first grant agreement was signed with RCREEE for $180,000 with RCREEE Director-General Ahmed Badr during the graduation ceremony of RCREEE’s 10th Arab Program for Sustainable Energy Youth (APSEY).

The statement clarified that this grant came as support for the upcoming 11th round of students.

“The eradication of energy poverty requires effective synergies and partnerships, while capacity building is key to achieving development in any sector. This grant is an important milestone as it supports much needed intervention in the Arab Region,” Al-Herbish said.

APSEY is a regional sustainable energy internship program targeting young professionals and post graduate engineering, economy and law students from the Arab region. OFID supported the 9th and 10th rounds of RCREEE’s APSEY program with two grants totaling $250,000, according to the statement.

The second agreement was with the Director of Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Mostafa el Feki, for $200,000.

Under the second agreement, OFID’s funding will support a project titled ‘The Arabs’ Memory’, which documents, preserves and digitizes Arab heritage.

Inaugurated in 2002, Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a major library complex and cultural center in Alexandria, Egypt, housing books in Arabic, English and French. OFID previously extended two grants to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina totaling $250,000, according to the statement.

Herbish described Bibliotheca Alexandrina as “a place of dialogue, learning and understanding between cultures and peoples.”

In April, Egypt signed a public sector loan agreement with OFID for $53.2 million to finance rehabilitation and irrigation, and drainage pumping stations project phase II.