Bank heads deny not giving adequate funding to small and medium construction contractor companies

Banks have been offering loans to construction contractors of all sizes, banking officials said at the Egypt’s Builders Conference yesterday, Al Borsa reports. Emirates NBD’s Deputy Managing Director Sahar El Damaty denied accusations that banks are holding back from providing adequate funding to contractors, saying that the sector receives the largest percentage of the bank’s credit portfolio. According to El Damaty, medium-sized contractors have received EGP 10.8 bn of funding from banks. Meanwhile, NBE raised the credit ceiling for contractors to EGP 40 bn from EGP 20 bn in 2016, and offered EGP 5 bn in LCs to SMEs, according to the bank’s vice president, Yehia Aboul Fotouh.