IFC to Strengthen Egypt’s Clean Tech Sector, Provide Solar Irrigation to Farmers

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the National Bank of Egypt have teamed up with the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) to support the growing clean technology sector and provide Egyptian farmers with access to solar irrigation. As it stands, startups make up the majority of players in the photovoltaic solar water pumping market in Egypt, but do not have the necessary finance options for customers, an issue the partnership now hopes to address.

Currently, farmers across the country use around 960,000 diesel-powered water pumps at a cost of $250 million in total. If these pumps were replaced with PV systems, this would not only result in a cleaner environment, but would be much more efficient, allowing farmers to irrigate more land and increase production at lower costs.

The National Bank of Egypt will be working with the IFC, sister organisation to the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group, to develop financial systems for farmers that will better enable them to purchase solar-powered water pumps. The project is being implemented with partnerships with the governments of Denmark, Korea, and the Netherlands.