The National Bank of Egypt’s (NBE) funding provided to cotton ginning and trade companies rose to EGP 2bn in the 2018/19 season, an increase of EGP 1.325bn compared to the 2017/18 season.
Eighteen cotton companies benefited from the funds, eight of which are private sector companies and the rest are affiliated to the public business sector.
Deputy Chairperson of the NBE Yahia Aboul Fotouh said that the bank understands that the funding should be distributed am,ong companies of differing volumes across the country.
Aboul Fotouh stressed the bank’s role in supporting and funding labour-intensive sectors, which contribute to solving unemployment issues, such as cotton cultivation, trade, export, ginning, spinning, and weaving.
“There’s is continuous coordination between the ministries of agriculture and business sector, as well as national banks, under the leadership of the Central Bank of Egypt to support Egyptian cotton and associated industries, given the strategic importance of this crop. The cooperation resulted in buying the cotton crop from farmers this season,” Aboul Fotouh said.
Sharif Riyad, head of the bank credit group for the financing of major companies and syndicated loans, said that the increase in funding allocated for the purchase of cotton crop came in line with the increase of production expected to record 2.5m quintals in addition to 200,000 quintals from the previous season. The total cotton planted area reached 336,000 feddan.
Reyad pointed out that the NBE is keen to provide funding for cotton crops under special conditions, to help its marketing locally and internationally, especially that the Egyptian cotton has a good reputation in the global market over the past few years.
