Banque du Caire Partners With MSMEDA for EGP 500M Microfinance Project

Banque du Caire and the Egyptian Micro, Small, and Medium-Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) have signed a contract establishing the EGP 500 million Tamkeen Microfinance project. Penned by Tarek Shash, Executive Vice President of MSMEDA, and Hazem Hegazy, the Vice Chairperson of Banque du Caire, the contract stipulates that Banque du Caire will finance micro-projects in the country.

MSMEDA Executive Director Nevine Gamea stated that the project will provide 10,000 loans across various governorates which will in turn create a plethora of job opportunities. The agreement also raises the funding cap of loans for micro-projects to EGP 500,000, a move which hopes to attract more people to the sector through formal channels, and to provide more resources to help businesses grow.

Another of the project’s aims is to create jobs in the outlying governorates, Upper Egypt, and rural areas and villages, within the scope of the ‘Decent Life’ national initiative.

MSMEDA and Banque du Cairo have been in close cooperation in the field of financing and supporting micro-projects since 2012. To date, the total amount of funds provided to the bank amounts to EGP 3.3 billion, funnelled into revolving loans that financed 612,000 micro-projects across the country.

Banque du Caire is estimated to have contributed to providing about 1.3 million job opportunities over a period of 19 years. It has also put in place a sustainable production project that serves underserved segments of society, particularly youth and female breadwinners.

Meanwhile, during the first third of 2021, MSMEDA injected a total of EGP 868.1m into funding micro-projects, efforts estimated to have created over 75,000 jobs.