National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is planning to expand its SMEs loan portfolio to EGP30bn (USD3.8bn), a targeted increase of 30% compared to a current estimated book of EGP23bn, by end of financial year 2016/17, according to a senior source at NBE familiar with the matter. Earlier this year, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) called on banks to increase SMEs financing to 20% of their total loan book by 2020. CBE’s SME financing initiative is part of an ambitious plan by President al-Sisi to promote smaller businesses. During the first half of FY15/16, NBE announced that its SME portfolio surged 16% to EGP19.2bn, including EGP2.7bn loans to micro-sized projects. (Amwal Al Ghad)