The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has expanded its initiative providing EGP 100bn in soft loans with 8% interest to include the contracting sector.
The initiative had initially been set up to provide finance to private sector companies in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors with sales of EGP 50m.
The CBE explained that the move has been put in place to counter the negative financial impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact on economic activities.
Including the contracting sector in the initiative has been seen as necessary, as it is one of the main drivers for many industrial and service sectors in the Egyptian market. It also includes a large segment of Egypt’s labour force, and is considered an important employer in Egypt.
