Industry accounts for 35.9% of total credit facilities granted by banks until end of April: CBE

Hossam Mounir
2 Min Read

The industrial sector accounted for 35.9% of the total credit facilities granted by banks to their customers until the end of April 2017, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

The CBE said in a recent report that the total of facilities amounted to about EGP 1.3653tn at the end of April, noting that the private sector accounted for about 62.8% of the total facilities.

According to the CBE, the service sector, mainly tourism activities, received about 30% of those facilities, while the trade sector accounted for 9.9%.

The CBE added that several other sectors, including household, accounted for 23.2% of the total facilities.

The agriculture sector came at the bottom with only about 1% of the facilities granted to customers.

The general manager of a private bank operating in the local market said that the agricultural sector is not the preferred sector for most banks, except for the Egyptian Agricultural Bank, which was originally established to serve this sector.

He added that the service and industrial sectors receive suitable funding from banks, although the industrial sector actually needs the double amount of these funds to increase its efficiency and activities. He pointed out that the industrial sector contributes significantly to the growth rates and provides job opportunities.

Despite the importance of the commercial sector, banks only focus on financing big investors who own large commercial chains, according to the source.

The source stressed the importance of restructuring the banks’ funding in line with the objectives of the development in the next stage, as the country is interested in the agricultural sector and the development of animal and fish welfare. The banks also should inject more funding in the industrial sector, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

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