The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has increased its capital by EGP 26.4bn between June 2008 and February 2017, according to the bank’s chairperson, Hisham Okasha.
The extraordinary general meeting of the bank, which was held on 26 February, headed by the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) governor Tarek Amer approved increasing the bank’s authorised capital from EGP 30bn to EGP 50bn—an increase of 66.7%.
The assembly also agreed to increase the paid-up capital of the bank from EGP 15bn to EGP 28.65bn-—up by 91%, using the bank retained profits.
According to Okasha, the bank is keen to always lift up its paid-up capital to boost its competitiveness, relying on retained earnings in light of the bank’s financial results over the past few years.
Okasha pointed out that the bank was able to implement gradual increases in its capital, where the paid-up capital increased from EGP 2.25bn in June 2008 to EGP 7bn in June 2011, then to EGP 9.2bn in September 2012, up to EGP 15bn in January 2015, and most recently in February 2017 to EGP 28.65bn.
“These successive increases in capital come as part of the bank’s long-term strategy to stay on top of the required capital adequacy rates,” he stressed.
He added that this increase is aimed at strengthening the financial position of the NBE and its capital base, in light of the coming expansion plans that include granting more credit facilities to different economic sectors, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Furthermore, Okasha said that the bank also aims to increase its competitiveness on the Egyptian market and fulfil its role of pushing forward the economy, as well as implement its plans of achieving financial inclusion and geographical spread, next to upgrading the infrastructure that helps the bank offer more products and step up social responsibility.
