Egypt receives final $500 mln tranche of African Development Bank loan

CAIRO -28 September 2018: Egypt has received the third and last 500 million dollars tranche of a 1.5 billion dollars African Development Bank (ADB) loan which will support the government's development programs, the investment ministry said on Friday.

The loan was agreed in 2015 amid an acute foreign currency shortage that crippled import activity and had the country scrambling to find new sources of dollars.

ADB constant support to Egypt proves that the Egyptian economy is steadily on the right track to achieve the sustainable development, Minister of Investment and the International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said.

ADB is confident in the Egyptian reforms, Nasr stressed.

The coming period is expected to witness more cooperation with ADB to shore up the private sector and the infrastructure in Sinai Peninsula, which could attract more investments into the region, Nasr elaborated.

Egypt has implemented tough reforms under a $12 billion IMF loan program agreed in late 2016 that involved deep cuts to energy subsidies, new taxes and a floated currency in a bid to draw back investors who fled after its 2011 uprising.