The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has extended the guidelines requiring banks to distribute 25% of their credit facilities portfolio to micro, small, and medium-sized firms (MSMEs) for one year beginning January 1, 2024.
The mandate also obligates banks to allocate 10 percent of the MSMEs quota to small enterprises and companies.
The CBE’s decision stipulated that the MSME loan quota would be calculated based on the bank’s balance sheet as of 31 December 2020.
The mandate was initially issued in February 2021 and was extended until the end of December 2023.
In February 2021, the CBE instructed the banking sector to increase allocations for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) from 20 to 25 percent of their credit facilitations.
According to CBE’s data released in December, financing offered to Egyptian microenterprises surged by more than 1,123 percent, reaching EGP 78.3 billion in June 2023 from EGP 6.4 billion in December 2016.
