The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority, previously known as the Social Fund for Development, has signed six new contracts to support microenterprises with a number of NGOs in the governorates of Cairo, Minya, Qena, Menoufia and Sohag.
The total value of the contracts amount to EGP 6.8bn. The funds were secured from the French Development Agency, Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, and the Small-Scale Enterprise Development in Rural Areas financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
CEO of the authority, Niveen Gamea, said that the contracts will benefit over 1,300 residents in these Egyptian provinces.
She stressed that the authority is expanding grant micro loans through verified NGOs across the republic. These loans will provide more job opportunities, reduce unemployment and improve the standard of living.
On the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Gamea said that the authority has doled out about EGP 1.59bn to finance 74,161 small and micro projects, which provided 93,891 jobs during the period of January to April 2017.
She explained that the total number of small projects financed by the authority amounted to EGP 957.9m for 5,263 projects and created 21,588 jobs.
Moreover, she note that the size of funding granted through intermediaries, and led by the banks, amounted to EGP 740.8m for 4,142, while the authority directly funded 1,121 projects with EGP 217.1m to create 4,751 jobs.
Gamea added that the authority injected EGP 591.1m to finance 68,898 micro enterprises that created 71,303 jobs.
