Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk announced that EGP 5bn has been earmarked in Egypt’s new 2025/2026 state budget—effective from 1 July—to support micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The funding is intended to make financing more accessible and affordable for young entrepreneurs, particularly in priority sectors.
This initiative represents a significant step in bolstering the private sector and productive industries, in cooperation with the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA). It also marks the start of a new phase of collaboration aimed at ensuring the agency’s financial sustainability and stimulating economic growth.
As part of these efforts, Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk and Basel Rahmi, CEO of MSMEDA, signed a cooperation protocol to implement financial policies that encourage entrepreneurship and support start-ups. The agreement also aims to reinforce MSMEDA’s ability to promote the development of micro, small, and medium-sized businesses.
Kouchouk explained that an initial agreement had been reached with MSMEDA to finance several initiatives. These include supporting beneficiaries of tax relief schemes, promoting entrepreneurship, encouraging local production and component manufacturing, advancing export-oriented projects, and enabling economic empowerment for low-income households.
He added that preferential, low-cost financing would be offered this fiscal year to the first group of businesses joining the simplified and unified tax system.
For his part, Basel Rahmi expressed appreciation for the Ministry of Finance’s policies aimed at supporting emerging enterprises and stimulating private-sector growth. He praised the minister’s forward-looking approach, which he said will help create new opportunities for the economic empowerment of young entrepreneurs.
