Egypt's local development fund finances 2,194 small projects with LE24.3M investments

CAIRO – 3 February 2021: Local Development Fund agreed in January to finance 203 small and micro projects with investments exceeding LE 2.3 million in 9 governorates, according to Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy.

Shaarway added, Wednesday, that the governorates are: Minya, Sohag, Beni Suef, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Luxor, New Valley, Sharkia and Menoufia, pointing out that the projects include 130 projects for women, representing 64 percent of the total projects.

He said that the report he had received on the efforts of the Local Development Fund since the beginning of the current fiscal year in July 2020 until the end of January 2021 referred to the financing of 2,194 small and micro-projects with investments of LE 24.3 million.

The minister explained that the most popular governorates with the Fund’s loans, are Minya 445 projects, Dakahlia 389 projects, Sohag 290, Gharbia 269 and Sharkia 174 projects.

He pointed out that the percentage of projects implemented by women exceeded 80 percent in the governorates of Qalyubia, Giza, Beheira, and North Sinai, directing those in charge of the fund to intensify field visits to follow up on the projects implemented by the fund in the governorates, the position of loan repayment, and the measures that are taken.

These field visits helps to overcome difficulties facing bad loans, and provide a package of new projects, encourage young people to implement projects that provide job opportunities for them on the one hand and help meet the needs of citizens in terms of products and commodities that may not be available in the markets surrounding them on the other hand, especially with the provision of additional financing to the fund, which amounts to LE 15.8 million pounds after the fund ran out of the funding allocated to it during the current fiscal year, amounting to LE 15 million.