Al Baraka Bank Egypt is planning to pump EGP1 billion (USD127.7 million) to support Egyptian SMEs, according to bank Chairman Ashraf El-Ghamrawy. Part of this financing will bear a 5% interest rate, and is in line with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)'s initiative launched in January to boost SMEs’ lending in Egypt to 20% of total loans by 2020. The CBE new directive to promote SME’s financing advised a 5% interest rate on loans for very small and small enterprises (with a turnover lower than EGP20 million), that would be exempted from the reserve requirement ratio. In addition, Al Baraka Bank Egypt is planning to sign a new partnership worth EGP200 million with the Social Fund for Development (SFD) to finance SMEs in 2016, El-Ghamrawy stated. (Amwal Al Ghad)