The National Bank of Egypt has agreed to offer EGP 27.1 billion ($1.7 billion) worth of loans within the Central Bank’s initiative to provide low-interest funds to support industrial sector companies to face the repercussions of the coronavirus epidemic.

Sherif Riyad, head of the group of credit and loans for companies in the National Bank, said that he has agreed to pump EGP 27.1 billion worth of loans into 218 companies, according to conditions and controls, within the initiative of the Central Bank, to support the industrial sector. Riyad added that three companies obtained long-term loans of three to five years, at a value of EGP 1 billion ($63.3 million), while 215 companies obtained short-term loans worth EGP 26 billion ($1.6 billion).

There are about 121 companies whose sales exceeded EGP 1 billion and who obtained about 74 per cent of the value of loans, while 97 companies, whose sales amounted to between EGP 50 million ($3.2 million) and EGP 1 billion, received 26 per cent of the loans at a value of EGP 7.1 billion ($449.8 million).

The Central Bank announced last December that EGP 100 billion ($6.3 billion) will be available to banks with the aim of relending them at a subsidised interest of 10 per cent to factories and companies with annual sales or revenues ranging from EGP 50 million to EGP 1 billion, before being reduced to eight per cent in March, after the coronavirus outbreak.