EBRD offers $ 50 m loan to Banque du Caire to back Egypt’s MSMEs, women entrepreneurs

26 / 02 / 2024

By Marwa Nassar - -

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a financing package of $50 million to Banque du Caire (BDC), one of Egypt’s largest banks, to scale up support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

The credit line to Banque du Caire will help to increase access to finance for MSMEs in Egypt and expand its outreach to new clients across the country.

Under the EBRD’s Women in Business (WiB) program, BDC will allocate up to $10 million to women-owned or led enterprises, with the aim of alleviating the financing gap for those enterprises and boosting their competitiveness.

The WiB loan will be complemented by an EBRD-funded technical cooperation package that will provide beneficiaries with advisory and capacity-building services. The package will also support BDC in testing and rolling out new WiB products to better meet the needs of women-led MSMEs, improving access to finance.

The agreement was signed at the EBRD’s headquarters in London in the presence of Jürgen Rigterink, EBRD First Vice President and Head of Client Services Group, and Tarek Fayed, BDC Chairman and CEO.

Jürgen Rigterink said “The EBRD is delighted to sign this facility with BDC, reinforcing our strong and strategic partnership. We are very pleased to further support MSMEs, a key segment of the Egyptian economy, and foster inclusion by encouraging lending to women-led businesses.”

Tarek Fayed said “We take pride in our strategic partnership with the EBRD. BDC is committed to supporting entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, and empowering them at all levels. The EBRD financing will support projects in regions outside the capital city, capitalising on BDC’s geographical presence, especially in Upper Egypt, which accounts for about 55 percent of BDC’s microfinance customer base, of which women and youth comprise 35 percent and 40 percent respectively.”