CAIRO: Saudi Arabia is to provide 270 million Egyptian pounds ($17.25 million) to help support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt, Rania Al-Mashat, the Egyptian minister of international cooperation, announced on Sunday.
The announcement came after three days of meetings in Cairo between the ministry and the Saudi Arabia’s Grant Management Committee. The committee decided that Banque Misr would receive 70 million pounds from the grant’s funds to finance the purchasing of factory machinery, transportation and medical equipment, and devices for laboratories and hospitals.
The Industrial Development Bank was granted 100 million pounds to finance clean energy and to purchase additional equipment. Additionally, the Bank of Cairo was granted 100 million pounds to finance microenterprises.
Al-Mashat said the grant aims to support the development of SMEs in Egypt and to be a catalyst for job creation.
In total, the Saudi Arabia Grant Management Committee has awarded 1.5 billion pounds to support the financing of 2,500 projects in 27 Egyptian governorates.
