Cairo – Mubasher: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund) have signed a $200 million loan agreement with the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).
The funding will be on-lent to infrastructure projects to support the Egyptian government's efforts in enhancing the growth of investments across various infrastructure sectors, according to a recent statement by AIIB.
"This is AIIB’s first nonregional syndication transaction in the financial institutions' sector and NBE’s first on-lending project directed to the infrastructure sector. AIIB will support NBE with its ongoing efforts to enhance its sustainability initiatives," the statement showed.
Hesham El-Safty, NBE’s Group Head for Financial Institutions and International Financial Services, said, “With the $200 million in funding from AIIB and the OPEC Fund, NBE will be in a position to expand its existing funding to this crucial sector, hence improving services offered to Egyptian corporates and making a wider impact on the economy as a whole.”
“This is AIIB’s first engagement with an Egyptian bank and the project will help NBE diversify its funding sources for lending to the infrastructure sector,” said AIIB's Vice President for Investment Operations, Konstantin Limitovskiy.
