Funding will be provided through the Ministry’s Local Development Fund, Shaarawy added
Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy
Egypt’s Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy announced the ministry’s target of implementing 30,000 micro and small-scale projects over the coming five years, with loans estimated at LE 200 million.
Funding will be provided through the Ministry’s Local Development Fund, Shaarawy added.
The projects are important in utilizing raw materials available in Egypt, and transforming them into new usable products for sectors such as the food and crafts industries, said the minister in a statement on Sunday.
He said the ministry is currently studying reducing loan interest rates for female breadwinners in the villages covered by the presidential initiative of "Decent Life" from 6 percent to only 4 percent similar to the beneficiaries from the literacy and disabilities programs.
He added that interest rate on loans for drop by drop irrigation projects will stand at 5 percent.
The initiative will continue to be implemented to help borrowers of loans to pay off their debts on the micro and small-scale projects, and those who have loans from the Local Development Fund, by granting them a grace period till the end of December 2021, said Shaarawy.
He also said the local development fund is offering loans to youths and women especially the talented persons to carry out their creative ideas, adding that 5,449 projects have been implemented in 23 governorates over the period from September 1st, 2019 till the end of February 2021.
Investments in such period exceeded LE 57.8 million including LE 48 million in the form of loans, the minister added, noting that number of projects for female breadwinners reached 3,740 representing a 68.6 percent of the total projects.
Shaarawy also noted that the 16 activities covered by the local development fund included animal wealth, pourtly, dairy products, honey, food industries, agricultural machinery, selling outlets, among others.
