Economic experts laud CBE initiatives to support SMEs

CAIRO - 22 July 2020: Economic experts and bankers have stressed the importance of expanding funds to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are key to achieving sustainable development goals. 

Efforts should be exerted to create jobs for youth and reduce poverty, the experts said, praising initiatives of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to support such projects. 

One such initiative is “NilePreneurs” to support youth by turning their ideas into projects, the experts agreed in a seminar organized by the Egyptian African Businessmen’s Association (EABA) earlier Wednesday.

The seminar focused on the different banking services and ways to support SMEs. 

Participants agreed on the need to establish funds to bankroll SMEs and recommended that legislative changes be made to create a friendly environment. 

Speaking in the seminar was Amr Kamal, chairman of the EABA banks committee, who praised recent resolutions and initiatives of the CBE that held banks committed to allocating 20 percent of the total value of funding portfolios (more than 360 billion pounds) for SMEs.

He also touched upon the “NilePreneurs ”initiative, which is funded by the CBE and implemented by Nile University with the aim to encourage innovation to help achieve economic growth.

Mamdouh Afia, chairman of the SMEs group at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), said small and medium-sized projects are the cornerstone of the economy and do not require huge funds. 

The NBE, he added, provides banking tools that help cope with the successive changes at the regional and international levels. 

Afia made it clear that the SMEs loan portfolio of the NBE reached about 83 billion pounds used to bankroll about 82,000 projects. 

For his part, EABA chairman Yosri el Sharqawi stressed the need to secure funds for SMEs, as well as market expertise. 

Businessmen should be posted on the African experiment in funding SMEs, he noted.