The Industrial Development Bank (IDB) has signed a cooperation protocol with the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) to provide funding of EGP 100m to re-lend through the associations of lending and microfinance. The protocol aims to access 100,000 new clients through Bashayer El-Kheir project, which aims to inject the funding through associations and micro finance NGOs. The agreement was signed by IDB's chairperson and managing director Maged Fahmy and Nevin Gamea, CEO of the SMEDA. Fahmy stressed the bank's keenness to enhance cooperation with the SMEDA and different funding bodies to provide funding to support SMEs. He praised the significant role played by the IDB in supporting MSMEs and SMEDA injecting more funding for these projects. Fahmy said the signing of this protocol comes as a culmination of 13 previous contracts signed with SMEDA with funding reaching about EGP 427m, of which about EGP 385m were disbursed to 1,050 projects, aside from the new EGP 100m funding package. Hamdy Azzam, vice president of the bank, said that the new agreement comes in continuation of the role of the bank in supporting MSMEs, noting that the bank's portfolio reached EGP 2.6bn and EGP 200m that are under processing, along with EGP 400m worth of funding that is being studied. As for micro funding, the portfolio reached EGP 1bn funnelled to 70,000 clients. Azzam added that cooperation with the SMEDA aims at reaching a large segment of young graduates of both sexes, low income groups, and the neediest groups in all governorates to create new horizons for business, reduce unemployment and create job opportunities, which is currently adopted by the state. For his part, Tarek Galal, who is supervising the credit areas and head of small projects at the IDB, said that the new EGP 100m will be used to finance A and B associations, along with newly established micro funding companies, in addition to 50% that will be directed to NGOs of G category, to reach 100,000 clients with an average of EGP 10,000 per loan.
