CBE unveils rules of new loan initiative to support industry, agriculture with 11% interest rate

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced the rules of a new five-year initiative to fund industrial and agricultural sectors’ projects with loans at an 11 percent interest rate.

As per the CBE circular to banks on Tuesday, the total value of the Finance Ministry’s initiative, approved by the cabinet in January, is LE 150 billion, the largest share of which (LE 140 billion) will be used to finance capital money, and the other LE 10 billion is dedicated to financing the purchase of capital goods.

Maximum loan amount for individual clients is LE 75 million, while multiple-party clients cannot receive more than LE 112.5 million under the initiative, which will benefit large and medium-sized companies, as defined by the CBE, along with the large, medium, and small-sized businesses affiliated to them.

The 5-year term initiative also covers free zone factories and agricultural cooperatives whose articles of association (MoA) allow them to apply for loans.

The amount of credit available to each company will be determined by the volume of its business and the banking rules, provided that the maximum credit limit allowed for each company does not exceed the amount of LE 75 million.

The initiative also stipulates that each company has transactions with maximum two banks from those participating in the initiative, under which it is prohibited for any client to use any of the credit available under this initiative to pay any other debts within the initiative time-frame.

Source: Egypt Today Magazine