Local Development Fund seeks additional EGP 7m to support SMEs: min.

CAIRO - 2 January 2019: Local Development Minister Mahmoud Shaarawi said coordination is underway with the Finance Ministry to pump an additional 7 million pounds to the Local Development Fund to bankroll micro and small size enterprises.

The fund spent the total sum of EGP 15 million which was allocated for the fund to finance small projects during the current fiscal year - starting from July 2018.

The fund financed 1,933 small projects through offering loans worth EGP 15 million, he said, noting that about 65 percent of these projects were carried out by women.

Shaarawi said that the Upper Egypt governorate of Menya was the top beneficiary of the loans.

Easing measures of the fund's loans contributed to encouraging small projects in the first half of the current fiscal year in comparison with the previous year.