Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, the Governor of Egypt and Minister of International Cooperation, met with Sérgio Pimenta, the Regional Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for Africa, during his latest visit to Egypt this week.
In the presence of IFC’s Vice President Advisor for Africa, Olayinka Charles Lawson, and Regional Director for North Africa and the Horn of Africa, Cheick Oumar Sylla, the meeting centered on tracking the joint cooperation portfolio with the institution as well as ongoing efforts to improve private sector participation and encourage investments.
Al-Mashat began the meeting by expressing the government’s gratitude for their collaborative efforts with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank subsidiary that finances the private sector. She also emphasized the significance of collaborations and initiatives that align with the government’s goals and priorities to enhance the private sector’s involvement in development across multiple domains.
She pointed out that the collaboration represented the amount of money IFC has invested over $7 billion since the organization’s founding in Egypt. The IFC has amassed approximately $2.46 billion in investments over the last four years, including a $1.7 billion ongoing portfolio.
That is on top of a $34 million portfolio of technical support covering high-priority areas like manufacturing, infrastructure and renewable energy, healthcare, gender equality, fintech, and climate finance.
Furthermore, Al-Mashat expressed gratitude to Pimenta for taking part in the opening of the Private Sector Portal: Hub for Advisory Finance and Investment for Enterprises. This platform is thought to be the first of its kind to connect development partners, agencies, the government, and the local business community to improve communication and foster connections among the different private sector businesses.
This step is in line with the suggestions made at the October 2022 Egypt Economic Conference, which highlighted the platform’s potential to effectively connect the work of institutions in the private sector and development partners.
It should be mentioned that earlier this week, Al-Mashat presented the Ministry’s annual report, “Platforms for Policy and Practice,” which disclosed that, between 2020 and 2023, multilateral and bilateral development partners provided the private sector with a total of $10.3 billion in development financing.
