IFC to help finance our MSMEs — and especially women-led MSMEs: The International Financial Corporation (IFC) will provide state-owned Banque Misr with a USD 234 mn loan for on-lending to privately-owned micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), with half of the loan earmarked for women-led businesses, the lender said in a statement on its website. The loan, which was announced on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF’s annual meeting in Marrakech, will “create new jobs, boost economic growth, and reduce the gender financing gap,” the statement said.

It’s a bit less than originally expected: The IFC was considering lending Banque Misr USD260 mn, with the IFC providing USD 216.7 mn and the rest coming from its co-lending program, the lender’s website said in May. At the time the IFC said the loan had a tenor of five years, this was not confirmed in the recent statement.

The breakdown: The loan is composed of USD 190.7 mn in funds from the IFC and a further USD 43.3 mn from the IFC’s emerging markets mobilization platform MCPP One Planet. The project will also be able to access concessional funding through the IFC’s Global SME Finance Facility.

Not the first time the IFC and Banque Misr partnered up to support women-led businesses: The IFC supported Banque Misr’s Zaat program for female entrepreneurs launched in 2022. However, this new USD 234 mn loan marks the IFC’s “first gender-lens investment” in one of our state-owned banks, the statement added.

Banque Misr saw the EBRD greenlight USD 100 mn for MSMEs in July: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced it would provide a loan of USD 100 mn to the bank to be directed to supporting MSMEs in May, with a focus on businesses located in areas with limited access to financial services.

DATA POINT: TheIFC’s Egypt portfolio now stands at some USD 1.7 bn, backed up with an active advisory portfolio amounting to USD 32 mn.

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