The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has partnered with QNB Al-Ahli to support small businesses with $100m in credit, the EBRD announced in a Monday statement.
The credit will be allocated for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) “to help address the problem of insufficient access to finance for this important sector of the Egyptian market”, the EBRD said.
“We are very pleased to team up with QNB Al-Ahli in helping to increase the levels of SME finance in the Egyptian economy,” said Philip Ter Woort, Director for Egypt at the EBRD, adding that the bank is keen to support QNB Al-Ahli to continue its activities in the SME area with ambitious growth targets.
Mohamed El-Dib, Chairman and Managing Director of QNB Al-Ahli said the cooperation comes in line with the ambitions and objectives in support of Egypt’s business community and economic development, particularly the SMEs sector.
The EBRD is also contributing to expanding international trade in Egypt by offering $40m trade facility to QNB Al-Ahli under EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP).
“The facility will issue guarantees in favour of QNB Al-Ahli, covering political and commercial payment risks for transactions made by QNB Al-Ahli and provide cash loans to fund trade-related advances to local companies exclusively for pre-export, post-import and local distribution of imported goods,” the European bank said.
