The Housing and Development Bank (HDB) and FA Group for Financial Consulting have held a graduation ceremony for the first batch of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) financing training course, which included 25 of the bank’s employees.
Graduation certificates were given to the trainees in the presence of the former governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and head of FA Group, Mohamed Aboul Oyoun; HDB chairperson Fathy El-Sebai; and HDB deputy chairperson Essam Abou Hamed; as well as a number of the bank’s officials.
During the graduation ceremony, trainees presented their graduation projects, which were designed over the course of 172 hours of training.
Aboul Oyoun said the future of Egypt’s economy relies on the support and encouragement of SMEs, stressing the need for bankers to be trained in this sector. He praised the efficiency of the trainees and their ability to absorb all the needed financing methods, schemes, and mechanisms to attract target customers.
El-Sebai noted that the bank aims to finance SMEs in accordance with the CBE’s initiative launched earlier this year and offers them an attractive interest rate at 5% or 7% according to their designated financial bracket.
He added that the bank aims to encourage young people to work and start their projects or develop existing ones based on the definitions set by the CBE. The bank recently participated in the People and Banks Conference this year. The conference sessions paid homage to SMEs and the facilities provided by the state across its agencies to help entrepreneurs land funds for their projects, so as to increase productivity and raise the level of quality to improve the national economy and eliminate unemployment.
