The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting Egypt’s privatisation agenda and boosting the competitiveness of the private sector by taking a minority equity stake in Tamweely Microfinance S.A.E, the country’s leading non-bank financial services company, specialising in serving micro and small businesses.

The EBRD is co-investing with a consortium of investors comprising British International Investment, SPE PEF III (the new fund raised by SPE Capital) and Tanmiya Capital Ventures to fully acquire Tamweely Microfinance.

The acquisition will support Tamweely’s domestic growth strategy and boost its competitiveness and resilience, enabling it to become one of the country’s leading microfinance providers.

The Bank is also promoting women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by giving Tamweely the technical assistance it needs, funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We Fi), to join the Women Entrepreneurs (WE) Finance Code in Egypt. The WE Finance Code is a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at increasing funding to women-led MSMEs. Tamweely will join the national coalition, led by the Central Bank of Egypt, to build the ecosystem for women-led MSMEs and help build data-flow mechanisms for gender-disaggregated data.

Funded by the SEMED Multidonor Account, Tamweely will receive US$ 75,000 in technical assistance to underpin its expansion plans for microfinance and SME lending.

Egypt is a founding member of the EBRD. Since the start of its operations there in 2012, the Bank has invested more than €12.2 billion in 185 projects in the country. The EBRD’s areas of investment in Egypt include the financial sector, agribusiness, manufacturing and services, as well as infrastructure projects, such as power, municipal water and wastewater services, and the upgrade of transport services‎.