The United Bank at the Economic Saloon

09/02/2017

The United Bank participates in the economic saloon of The Egyptian Association for small and medium enterprises to discuss aspects of technical and financial support for developing this sector

Nevine Kashmiri – Assistant managing director of corporate finance sector , small and medium enterprises – The United Bank

• Acceding and alliance with the Egyptian Association for Small and Medium Enterprises, a deliberate step to coordinate efforts for support the process of maximizing the role of these enterprises in the national economy.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises and micro is the locomotive of development for the future of Egypt in 2030.
• Specialized working committees comprising all banks to intensify efforts to support this promising sector in its various activities.
• An intensive working session for develops solutions to all the challenges facing the sector.
• The United Bank offers a package of Specialized financing programs fit the needs of small and medium enterprises and micro both conventional and Shariaa compliant.
• Providing financial support with funding and technical consultation for the owners of these projects.
• Continuous follow through unity "incubators and early warning" to ensure the success and sustainability of these projects.

Cairo: February 8, 2017

The United Bank participated for the first time in the economic saloon which was organized by the Egyptian Association for small and medium enterprises last week, headed by Dr. / Khaled Nagaty - president of the association with the presence of a large gathering of the association’s members, owners of small and medium enterprises, bankers and economics in addition to media sector and economic journalists.

The economic saloon hosted Nevine Kashmiri - Assistant Managing Director of financing large corporations sector, small and medium enterprises in The United Bank – who talked about the importance of small and medium enterprises role in the overall economic development of Egypt's plans, according to Egyptian 2030 vision.

She expressed that all organs of the State, The Central Bank of Egypt and the private sector put forward a number of initiatives to pay attention to the youth and women elements by activating the initiative of Mr. President and The Central Bank of Egypt to provide 200 billion pounds to support small and medium-sized corporate sector projects. In order to create new jobs and to eliminate the phenomenon of unemployment, this amounted high rate and reached about 8 million Egyptian. And also to eliminate the parallel economy (unofficial) which contributes to financial inclusion to the community as whole applications.

The sector of small and medium-sized enterprises represents a huge slice of the Egyptian economic community estimated at about 80% of the size of the companies operating in Egypt. Its appeal comes from the speed of the return on investment for these projects compared to major projects. This is due to the simplicity of the technology used, capital size and speed of its rotation. So it contributes more than 50% of the total national income in various economic and productive activities.

Nevine Kashmiri explained that The United Bank develops within its strategic policies to enter and strongly in the financing of small, medium and micro enterprises sector with a clear vision and an integrated program aimed at serving the sector professionally and monitoring for the accuracy and develop new ideology with a focus on commercial, service and industrial sectors. Therefore, that is based on three main themes.

First Theme: is based on a careful study of the market and the nature of private customers in all the governorates. That is for the spread of The United Bank’s 51 branches in all the governorates especially Delta and Upper Egypt. As well as the inventory of their needs and priorities. As the nature of the projects and activities which vary from one governorate to another, and therefore there must be a plan to provide all the services and meet all the needs of the bank's existing customers and new customers.

Second Theme: is based on the basis of equipping a selection of human cadres capable of managing SMEs and micro sector, in particular, and full banking system generally with all the professionalism.

Third Theme: It is the development of Specialized and modern technological information systems that serve the nature of these projects in various activities, whether computer programs or work systems to provide maximum safety ratings and monitoring, time and accurate data for customer service.

Unit of "incubators and early warning."
Nevine Kashmiri pointed that The United Bank initiated by the establishment of a Specialized unit called the "unity of incubators and early warning" to serve small and medium enterprises and micro sector.

This unit is designed to the best follow up, almost daily to ensure the success and sustainability of these projects. As well as providing all the technical and financial consulting and banking solutions whether conventional or Shari'a compliant.

Challenges and solutions for the promotion of small and medium enterprises sector
Concerning the challenges that hinder opportunities to maximize investments in small and medium enterprises and micro sector, Nevine Kashmiri sees that the sector suffers from many of social, administrative and financial challenges. Even though major initiatives, facilities and the massive support provided by all state bodies and civil society.

The segments of society, especially the youth and women have low community awareness about the importance of these projects in making an economic transformation, both at the level of income of individuals and society as a whole.

As well as the administrative difficulties facing these projects, the state is currently working to eliminate these difficulties including obtaining the necessary licenses due to the multiplicity of authorities. The lack of certified data and unified figures about the sector. And also the lack of real compass by the concerned authorities affecting the quality of the currently priority economic projects for the development and which geographic regions are the neediest of these projects. This work is currently to overcome this obstacle by developing a one-stop shop and unified number.

As well as the lack of awareness of the banking and financial investors, this is reflected in their reluctance to knock on the doors of banks in search of funding opportunities. Banks and institutions Specialized training remedied especially the Institute of Banking and The Central Bank of Egypt for the active role in the training and education process of cadres to serve high professionalism of this sector.

She expressed that the solutions and initiatives that are currently pursued by the state bodies and The Central Bank of Egypt from rationalization of credit consumption to 35% of the size of the individuals’ income. As well as the President of the Republic's initiative to provide 200 billion pounds. Also the development of the banking system and stimulate the banks to provide funding opportunities for the sector through the exemption of 10% of the bank reserve until 2019 and an inevitable increase in the size of funds to this sector about 20% of the total credit portfolio of banks. As well as internationally accredited entities and educational institutions such as the Egyptian Banking Institute training. As well as the unification of nomenclature and definitions for these projects all banks.

All this movement has contributed to stimulate the banks and financial companies and institutions of civil society to support the process of activating the role of small and medium enterprises sector and micro promising in the national economy. This prompted the rise in the overall improvement in performance indicators of business activity for Egypt to No. 126 out of 190 countries also the investment climate in Egypt.

The United Bank initiative to raise the efficiency of the Egyptian product
The United Bank’s national initiative to raise the efficiency of the Egyptian product, Nevine Kashmiri indicated that this initiative has been launched to raise production efficiency and improve the quality of Egyptian products and give a strong boost to the recovery of the economic situation in the local market under the name of "financing Intelaka."

As well as the availability of financing opportunities in cooperation with the Social Fund for Development through The United Bank and its branches 51 scattered all over Egypt. The fund is the largest partner of the Bank in supporting the small and medium enterprise sector, funded whether conventional or Sharia compliant. The bank comes second after The National Bank in cooperation with the Social Fund for Development.

International experiences
She noted to international experiences in countries such as India, China, Japan, Malaysia and Jordan in small and medium-sized enterprises and micro-sector development. The success of Japan economically and industrially was based on the integration of large and small industries. The Government of Japan has to grant small and medium entrepreneurs soft loans. And set up the necessary infrastructure for these projects.

The government has invested in the media through long-term plan aimed at developing the community thought which helped to labor mobility from large industries to small industries. And the establishment of a number of intermediate industries and give up large industries for the production of many components and manufacturing outsourcing production to more Specialized small factories.

As well as the issuance of Japanese government several rules to encourage small and medium enterprises and is designed to developing and improve social and economic conditions for owners and managers of these projects by searching solutions for social and economic problems that face these projects and supporting small and medium enterprises efforts to achieve self-help.