EBRD to provide loans to Egyptian Women Entrepreneurs

In order to expand the assistance for women entrepreneurs in Egypt, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing EGP 700 million (€13.2 million equivalent) loan to the country’s largest micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) lender, Tasaheel for Financing (Tasaheel).

The loan shall be offered under Women in Business programme of EBRD, aiming to help increase the access of finance for privately owned, women-led MSMEs. It focuses on Greater Cairo and Alexandria’s outside regions that are underserved by the banking sector.

EBRD shall provide comprehensive technical cooperation package along with the loan to Tasaheel in order to help for introducing new financial products that are attuned for the women-led MSMEs needs. In addition, it aims at improving the financial access along with which it includes activities that are for capacity-building for specialised lending and monitoring.

The Women in Business programme of EBRD focuses on promoting women’s economic participation while providing assistance of financial, advisory, training and mentoring support to women entrepreneurs. Covering majority of the sectors and industries, this WiB programme’s primary weightage is on small businesses that are led by women, having lesser than 250 employees alongside annual turnover of less than €50 million.