Newly appointed Minister of International Cooperation, Sahar Nasr, held a meeting with representatives from the African Development Bank (AFDB) to discuss the historical and ongoing portfolio of the bank in Egypt, a Tuesday statement from the ministry read.
Nasr met with Charles Boamah, Vice President in charge of Finance; Alassane BA, Acting CEO of Africa; Ben Hammouda, Adviser to the President of AFDB as well as Prajesh Bakhta, Chief Country Program Officer at the bank’s office in Cairo.
The bank’s delegation indicated that the current cooperation with Egypt is going according to the framework of the strategy set for 2015-2019 that is to be launched in line with the priorities and vision of the new government.
The amount of financing dedicated to Egypt this year is equivalent to around $450m; this could however grow in the coming years, the bank highlighted.
Nasr indicated that the ministry’s main priorities revolve around supporting the state budget, to ensure government spending’s sustainability thus promote growth. The other priority would be financing the 1m feddans project for creating a new urban community complex.
The completion of providing the financial package for the development of the Sharm El-Sheikh airport was also agreed upon during the meeting. In May 2015 AFDB provided the project with $90m, whereby another $50m are expected to be officially provided soon by the bank.
AFDB started its operations in Egypt in 1974 and it is currently participating in the financing of more than 35 projects with total funding of approximately $1.9m. The projects being financed by the bank are in the sectors of electricity, agriculture, transport and airports amongst others.
The bank affirmed that the projects are progressing well, and that the amount withdrawn from the aforementioned value of funding has reached 62%.
