A report by Egypt’s Ministry of Local Development revealed that the Mashro’ak (“Your Project”) programme has, since its launch until the end of August 2020, implemented 154,000 projects across Egypt with loans amounting to EGP 15.4bn.
Six banks have participated in financing the programme, namely: Banque Misr; the National Bank of Egypt (NBE); Banque du Caire; Bank of Alexandria (AlexBank); the Housing and Development Bank (HDB); and the Egyptian Agricultural Bank (EAB).
Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawi said that these projects have provided more than 864,000 jobs.
He also said that small, medium and micro enterprises are a strategic goal adopted by the ministry, because of their vital role in Egypt’s general economic development. These enterprises also contribute to the country’s advancement and development, whilst also reducing unemployment rates and improving the level of income.
Shaarawi said that in August alone, the programme implemented about 4,000 projects providing 37,000 job opportunities, with loans of over EGP 716m.
He added that Upper Egypt saw the largest numbers of projects implemented, with 79,000 projects set up using loans worth a total of EGP 6.7bn. This was followed by the Delta region with 34,000 projects set up using loans of EGP 4bn, and Alexandria with 16,900 projects using loans of EGP 1.4bn. In the Suez Canal region, 15,700 projects were implemented with loans of EGP 1.8bn.
In the Greater Cairo region, 7,400 projects were implemented with loans of EGP 1.4bn. A total of 1,000 projects were set up in the Sinai Peninsula, with loans of EGP 120m.
Shaarawi directed for governorates to make use of their respective facilitation committees to resolve any administrative problems related to the Mashro’ak initiative, and to facilitate the applications for loans.
The committees also provide facilities and full support to their owners and follow up the implementation of projects and their future development plans. This mainly aims to support the project capacity, continuity and competitiveness and create community development in all governorates.
He added that coordination has been made with banks participating in the implementation of this programme to increase lending rates, provide non-traditional financing services, and form joint marketing work teams.
He explained that Mashro’ak comes as part of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) initiative which provides loans at an interest rate of 5% to encourage small, medium and micro enterprises.
