Approximately 640 civil society organisations have submitted requests to attain licenses, which permit them to finance micro-businesses in Egypt, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) said.
253 of those organisations have successfully obtained the licenses, the EFSA added, while the organizations that have yet to receive their license are still under review.
Approximately 88 of the organisations that applied for the licenses were from Minya while 84 were from Qena. Sixty five were from Sohag, chairman of the EFSA Sherif Samy said.
Meanwhile, only one company has received the EFSA approval and another is under review, an official statement from the EFSA said.
In November 2014, Samy told Daily News Egypt that the limit for microfinance loans provided to micro-businesses is set at EGP 100,000. He added, however, that according to regulations, this figure is subject to a 5% annual increase.
The EFSA chairman pointed out that in practicality, finances required for micro-businesses do not exceed half of the figure set in the law.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree approving the microfinance law, which was prepared by the EFSA last November. The law, which is the first of its kind in Egypt, will allow companies and non-government organisations (NGOs) to finance projects that are normally ineligible for bank loans. Samy claimed that this is the most important economic legislation issued since January 2011.
