EALB, EFG Hermes Leasing to finance SMEs, capital assets

CAIRO – 24 August 2017: The Egyptian Arab Land Bank (EALB) and EFG Hermes Leasing signed a LE 50 million ($2.8 million) joint venture to offer leasing solutions for fixed assets to small businesses in Egypt, a Wednesday statement said.

The agreement will provide funding at low-interest-rate lease arrangements for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt, which compose the majority of private businesses in the economy and are the key drivers of job creation, EFG Hermes said.

“The agreement aims at capitalizing on the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) initiative to provide a healthy financial environment for small businesses to thrive in the current macro-economic backdrop,” the statement read.

In May, CBE launched a microfinance initiative to enlarge banking funding to micro projects.


Micro-financing of individuals and companies will comprise 20 percent of the credit portfolio of banks under the initiative, CBE’s Governor Tarek Amer explained.

“The initiative targets embracing the biggest amount of small enterprises under the official financial sector, and activating the electronic payment systems via mobile phones to pay loans and installments,” Amer said.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Trade exempted small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and microenterprises from half the licensing, amending activity and annual follow-up fees.

Under the issued decision, grievance committees are entitled to exempt SMEs from some non- core conditions to facilitate the licensing procedures for the industrial entities.