To join the new initiative, bakery owners must open a banking account at a bank, the bank will provide them with the loan
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and Egypt’s Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade have signed a cooperation protocol that will provide financing for local bakeries to convert their businesses from being based on diesel fuel to natural gas.
The CBE notes that the protocol comes in line with both the government’s plans to adopt natural gas and CBE’s initiative to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The central bank’s initiative, launched in 2016, provides loans for the sector with an annual interest rate that is decreased by 5 percent, states CBE.
To join the new initiative, bakery owners must open a banking account at a bank, the bank will provide them with the loan to receive the loan.
In February, the CBE instructed all banks operating in the local market to pump EGP 117 billion into micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through the end of December 2022 among other measures the CBE has taken in order to facilitate and ensure access to finance and create millions of job opportunities for young people.
In January 2020, the Central Bank of Egypt renewed the SMEs initiative for another four years.
The initiative obliges banks operating in the Egyptian market to appropriate at least 20 percent of loan portfolios to MSMEs.
