The Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE) has inaugurated a new business development service centre in the 6th of October City, as part of the NilePreneurs Initiative launched by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), to support entrepreneurship.
The bank aims to diversify its banking and financing services in all governorates for emerging, small, and medium-sized projects, and to encourage entrepreneurs to launch their projects particularly in the areas of manufacturing, agriculture, and digital transformation.
The centre was inaugurated by Alaa Farouk, Chairperson of the ABE; Sherif Luqman, Deputy Governor of the CBE for Financial Inclusion; Sami Abdel Sadek, Vice Chairperson of the ABE for the Business Sector; and other officials and leaders of the CBE and the ABE.
Farouk stressed the ABE’s keenness to expand financing of micro, small, and medium-sized projects, support innovative ideas and release the latent energies of young people, by providing many financial and non-financial services in areas that suit market needs, in implementation of the strategy of the Central Bank of Egypt, by maximizing the role of the banking sector in supporting small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurship, transformation into the formal sector, enhancing financial inclusion, creating job opportunities for youth, and empowering women, which will have a positive impact on the national economy.
Farouk said that among the plans of the ABE, the adoption of emerging, small and medium projects that work in the fields of agricultural industrialization, indicating that the bank is ready to enter into partnerships with the owners of these projects and provide all means of support to them, with the aim of enhancing the chances of success of their projects and improving their business environment, which is reflected in the standard of living in their community.
The new centre is the third to be opened by the ABE, after the Mansoura and Beni Suef centres, to provide support to entrepreneurs and project owners, revealing that the bank aims to open a total 20 centres nationwide, especially in places where small and medium enterprises are concentrated. It reflects the bank’s tendency to become the largest in the field of financing micro, small and medium enterprises, and in a way that reflects the state’s vision in achieving sustainable development and enhancing financial inclusion.
Sherif Luqman confirmed that the NilePreneurs Initiative is one of the most important initiatives launched by the Central Bank in cooperation with the banking sector to provide non-financial services to entrepreneurs and owners of emerging and small projects, and aims in the coming period to increase the base of banks participating in the initiative, which will contribute to increasing the base of beneficiaries of financial and non-financial services to support local industrialization, increase job opportunities, and achieve financial inclusion.
He explained that the initiative achieved good results at the level of providing non-financial services through the business development service centres, which numbered so far to 34 centres in 17 governorates in the branches of banks and youth centres affiliated with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, where these units have been established since the start of operation in July 2019 by providing about 150,000 services to more than 58,000 customers, and the percentage of women and entrepreneurs who benefited from them reached 28%.
Luqman praised the efforts of the ABE in developing the agricultural sector in Egypt, and its keenness to expand the financing of micro, small and medium projects, which represent a real locomotive for the growth of the national economy and creating real job opportunities for young people.
It is worth noting that the Business Development Service Centres at the Agricultural Bank of Egypt provide a variety of services, the most important of which is the service of facilitating obtaining financing and preparing the credit file, facilitating registration, and obtaining licenses, in addition to assistance services in developing ideas for new projects, financial education, and assistance in preparing a feasibility study and analysis.
