SCZone wants a big loan to fund green hydrogen projects: The General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) is on course to take out a 15-year, EGP 30-bn loan from a syndicate of local banks to finance the infrastructure for a number of green hydrogen projects, a source at the Finance Ministry told Enterprise. The authority has secured the Finance Ministry’s guarantee on the loan.

It’s not just in EGP: While most of the loan will be denominated in EGP, part of it will be paid in USD to finance imported components, according to As harq Business, which first reported the news.

The lenders: Led by the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the syndicate includes Banque Misr, Suez Canal Bank, CIB, Banque du Caire, and Arab African International Bank.

Not as long as it wanted: The SCZone had originally asked for a 20-year repayment term, which was declined by the lenders, according to our source.

Not the first of its kind: The authority in 2021 borrowed some EGP 10 bn from the same six banks to develop the Ain Sokhna and Port Said ports, our source said. The loan was also guaranteed by the Finance Ministry.

Remember: Egypt wants to capitalize on the growing global interest in green hydrogen as a low-carbon energy source by establishing itself as one of the region’s leading suppliers. The government signed nine framework agreements for green hydrogen plants on the sidelines of last year’s COP27 climate summit and has at least two more agreements in the works. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly earlier this month issued a decision to set up the council for green hydrogen, which is set to oversee the implementation of the government’s long-awaited green hydrogen strategy.

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