The International Financial Corporation (IFC) will provide Egypt’s Banque Misr with a $234 million loan to support small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with half of the funding allocated for women-led businesses
The partnership will help create jobs, boost economic growth, and reduce the gender financing gap.
IFC’s loan to Banque Misr will catalyse job creation in Egypt through its focus on providing financing to micro and small businesses, which employ the vast majority of the country’s private sector workforce and is an important source of job creation in the country.
The multilateral bank’s investment builds on its support for Banque Misr’s ZAAT program, which provides women with advice and mentorship to expand their businesses. Over the last year, Banque Misr introduced banking services to more than 55,000 women.
The loan marks IFC’s first gender-lens investment in a public sector bank in Egypt. It will comprise $190.7 million from IFC and $43.3 million from IFC’s managed co-lending portfolio programme, One Planet. The project will also benefit from concessional funding made accessible by IFC’s Global SME Finance Facility.
“Our partnership with IFC will help expand the number of women-led businesses in our SME banking portfolio and boost financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs across the country,” said Mohamed El Etreby, Chairman of Banque Misr.
Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Vice President for Africa, said, “Increasing access to finance for MSMEs and women-owned businesses can help to create jobs, boost economic growth, and reduce poverty.”
“This investment is further proof of IFC’s commitment to enabling the Egyptian government to support its private sector and promote gender equality,” adds Pimenta.
The investment aligns with the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework for Egypt, which seeks to support more and better private sector jobs in the country, among other objectives.
IFC has an investment portfolio in Egypt of nearly $1.7 billion and an active advisory portfolio of $32 million. The development bank supports Egypt’s private sector in key areas including access to finance, fintech, climate finance, manufacturing, infrastructure and renewable energy, healthcare, and gender inclusion.
