The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is putting USD 208 mn to work across Egypt and East Africa, targeting engines of everyday economic life, including banks that lend to small businesses, companies that manufacture medical equipment, and platforms that move food from suppliers to consumers, it said in a statement seen by EnterpriseAM.

Here’s how the capital is being deployed:

  • USD 150 mn to Banque Misr to expand lending for renewable energy, green buildings, sustainable transport, and energy efficiency. Part of the facility will go to MSMEs, with 20% earmarked for women-owned businesses;
  • USD 30 mn to GlobalCorp Group to scale leasing and factoring for MSMEs, particularly in underserved communities. This is the IFC’s first local-currency securitization in Egypt and the first development finance institution investment in a leasing securitization market;
  • USD 15 mn to GMED Holding and its subsidiary EGMED to scale medical equipment production, expand healthcare access, and roll out specialized training programs to strengthen local supply chains;
  • USD 13 mn to Breadfast to grow logistics, manufacturing, and tech capabilities to improve food distribution, widen SME retail access, and create jobs;
  • Advisory support to the Export Development Bank of Egypt to upgrade climate reporting and data governance under the Egypt30by30 program to help scale green lending.

Why this matters: The package adds to nearly USD 10 bn of IFC investment in the country to date and shows how it is moving further downstream to tackle the specific bottlenecks in the economy. For instance, anchoring the GlobalCorp securitization in local currency creates a proof of concept for non-bank financial institutions to access debt markets directly. The backing of Breadfast and GMED reflects a clear preference for real-economy vertical integration — investing in businesses that control more of their supply chains and can expand production, distribution, and resilience from within.

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