The National Bank of Egypt's (NBE) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) portfolio has registered 19 billion Egyptian pounds ($10.7 billion) as part the central bank of Egypt initiative, according to Vice Chairperson of NBE Yehia Aboul Fotouh . The bank captures 35 percent of the total initiative funding that has increased to 55 billion pounds, he added. CBE issued a directive requiring banks to allocate 20 percent of their total loaning portfolio for SMEs, with interest rates of up to 5 percent imposed on firms generating between EGP 1 million and 20 million a year in revenue. The initiative was launched on 9 January by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who announced that Egypt's banks would given 200 billion Egyptian pounds in loans to small and medium enterprises over the next four years.
