The National Bank of Egypt, the oldest commercial lender in the country, has provided fund of 2.9 billion Egyptian pounds to finance 31,000 low-income as part of Egypt’s (CBE) initiative to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) initiative Karim Sous – Head of Retail Credit Risk Sector at NBE. .
He added that the bank is studying new funds to number of the clients so that its contribution to the initiative will increase to 3 billion Egyptian pounds.
In 2016, the CBE announced an initiative to finance SMEs. Under the initiative, 20 per cent of bank loans should be allocated to SMEs within four years. 
The banks are to offer around 200 billion pounds to finance 350,000 companies and thus create job opportunities for more than four million people.
Interest rates will be less than the five per cent on loans given to youth initiatives. The banks participating in the four-year program will be able to deduct the loans from their required reserves at the CBE.
