The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed an advisory services mandate to assist Egypt’s leading private financial institution, Commercial International Bank (CIB), in developing retail and small and medium enterprise finance operations. The mandate will be implemented by North Africa Enterprise Development (NAED), a multidonor small business development facility managed by IFC, stated a press release.
NAED’s mandate, expected to start in September 2003 for a period of about a year, is to assist CIB in developing and implementing relevant organization, systems and products that will help the bank reach its objectives in terms of growth and quality of its retail and small business operations for the next five years. Commercial International Bank’s progress in reaching its objectives will be regularly monitored by NAED.
Small and medium enterprises comprise much of the local economy and thus present a vast untapped market for financial institutions in Egypt and other developing countries. Although often plagued by weak financial reporting and other issues that cause leading local banks to perceive them as high-risk, many commercial banks around the world have managed to overcome these obstacles with proven models of profitable and effective small business lending.
CIB is Egypt’s leading private commercial bank with currently 40 branches nationwide, total assets of $3.62 billion and total shareholders’ equity of $300 million as of March 31, 2003. CIB is a long-standing client of IFC, which has been a five percent shareholder since 1993. Over the years, IFC has supported CIB in becoming a diversified financial services group, promoting and investing in CIB insurance arm,which began operation in March 2000. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
