The Commercial International Bank (CIB) intends to sign a new finance contract worth EGP 100 million with the Social Fund for Development (SFD) during the current month.

Essam El-Korashy, head of SMEs development department at SFD, said the new contract aims at rehabilitating poultry production, as part of SFD’s focus on financing poultry SMEs.

SFD plays two important roles in supporting SMEs which are offering finance to individuals, banks and NGOs which finance SMEs as well as providing technical services and consultations to the owners of SMEs in order to qualify them to market their products, added El-Korashy.

SFD signed a memorandum of understanding with a SMEs organization in Turkey in order to transfer the Turkish SMEs experience to Egypt. This will be through establishing business incubators and specialized industrial regions for SMEs, he noted, affirming on the importance of SMEs in supporting national economy and reducing unemployment rate.

The total value of finances offered by SFD to SMEs reached EGP 4 billion. SFD targets to increase these finance to EGP 4.7 billion by the end of the current year, he said, adding that the delinquency rate is less than 2%.