The board of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved the sum of $22 million as loan to help support SMEs across agribusiness and food industries, tourism, Information Communication Technology (ICT), clean energy, health, transport and manufacturing sectors.
The loan, which was given to help Egypt’s Corporate Leasing Company (Corplease) to expand its operations in Egypt, would help in boosting the economy.
Speaking on the loan, Country manager in Egypt, African Development Bank, Malinne Blomberg explained that the intervention was in line with the bank’s strategic priorities, specifically “Feed Africa”, “Industrialize Africa” and “Improve the Quality of Life for the people of Africa”.
Why this matters: The support given by the AfDB with this loan would have favourable effects in the industries as it would help in building them and creating jobs for the citizens.
[READ MORE: AfDB partners DFID to unveil $80m infrastructure financing for Africa)
Acting Vice-President, Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization Complex, African Development Bank, Stefan Nalletamby who said:
“The need for leasing products in Egypt is growing consistently on an annual basis to meet the acute demand by small, medium and large-sized corporates for alternative source of funding from traditional banking sources, for business expansion and job creation. With the annual demand growth expected from the local corporates, the market for leasing in Egypt shows immense potential for investors.”
What you should know: Corplease is a leading non-bank financial institution that provides diverse leasing products and services to a wide range of SMEs and larger corporates, through direct leasing, sale and leaseback, as well as structured finance products. Corplease seeks to provide alternative financing through leases to address funding constraints in the private sector in Egypt.
Nairametrics reported recently that the AfDB invested $600 million to develop the renewable energy sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.
