The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has managed loans and grants for the Egyptian Pollution Abatement Programme (EPAP) with its three phases for over 20 years’ worth €330m, with the third phase being allocated €145m, according to the bank’s Chairperson, Hisham Okasha.
Okasha stressed that the NBE gives great attention to all economic activities given its importance for the national economy and being the pillar of economic development. It accommodates labourers and provides foreign currency from the revenues of industrial exports and production of alternative goods for imported ones.
On Sunday, the NBE signed three agreements with Semadco in Suez, Emisal in Fayoum, and AMOC in Alexandria, in order to provide funding worth €25m within the third phase of the EPAP programme.
The funding aims to help the three companies overcome environmental problems and achieve ecological compatibility.
Signing the three agreements coincided with the signing of the technical agreements of these companies with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) with the aim of launching the third phase of the EPAP.
According to Okasha, the NBE’s initiative to sign these agreements comes within the framework of activating the bank’s strategy to achieve Egypt’s 2030 vision, in line with the global goals of sustainable development.
For his part, Tarek El Molla, the minister of petroleum, said that the petroleum sector constantly seeks to coordinate with the ministry of environment in order to follow the global environmental consensus to achieve the objective of sustainable development in all industrial projects and fields.
El Molla pointed out that implementing this project mainly aims to reduce the pollution resulting from industrial operations through treating sewage water and reusing about 80% of the treated water, which helps companies secure their water needs and reduce costs.
According to the Minister of Environment, Yasmin Fouad, the ministry has an ambitious plan to help eliminate industrial waste, noting that it will be working in coordination with other ministries in order to merge the environmental dimension in all fields in order to achieve global competitiveness for Egyptian products and reach the desired sustainable development.
For his part, Yehia Aboulfotouh, the deputy chairperson of the NBE, said that the bank gives great attention to developing its mechanism through a plan that takes into consideration environmental dimensions to accommodate the ecological challenges in the face of growing industrial expansions.
He pointed out that the bank takes part in many initiatives with several bodies to provide a group of credit programmes that serve environmental compliance projects, including the environmental commitment agreement with the Egyptian Federation of Industries, as well as the refrigerant replacement project, in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Energy Efficiency Project Financing Programme, in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the GGF New and Renewable Energy, and the Energy Efficiency Financing Project.
