The Commercial International Bank (CIB) signed on Saturday a letter of intent with the French Development Agency Group (AFD) for a credit facility of €80m to CIB.
The signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls’s visit to Egypt, and was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.
According to a statement by CIB on Sunday, the agreement aims to provide credit facilities worth €60m provided by AFD in order to finance climate-benefiting projects, particularly in the renewable energy sector. CIB will also obtain another credit facility worth €20m from Proparco, one of the subsidiaries of AFD, for private sector financing with the goal of promoting and strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt (SMEs).
CIB-Egypt and AFD were for many years able to maintain an active partnership through various development programmes, including the industrial de-pollution programme –EPAP- as well as SASME which supports agricultural SMEs, and for which a grant agreement was also signed on Saturday.
CIB and AFD aim to finance and promote climate and environment benefiting private investments.
Credit facilities offered by AFD aim to stimulate international and local financing provided by the banking sector to renewable energy projects headed by the private sector, which will eventually help AFD continue supporting the development of renewable energy.
The financing is in line with COP 21’s agenda which focuses on the mobilisation of private financing, particularly from banking institutions, in order to promote the fight against climate-change.
