Qatar National Bank Alahli (QNB Alahli) is set to sign an EGP50 million (USD6.4 million) contract with Social Fund for Development (SFD) this month, to finance SMEs in Egypt. QNB Alahli is planning to boost its support to SMEs financing in Egypt as part of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)’s initiative in favour of SMEs financing. In January 2016, CBE launched an initiative to finance SMEs, and asked Egyptian banks to provide a minimum of 20% of their total loan books to SMEs by 2020. Moreover, the CBE requested the banks submit a comprehensive outline indicating how they will implement the CBE’s recommendation. (Amwal Al Ghad)   Qatar National Bank: QAR139.00 as of 10 March 2016, Rating: Buy, FV: QAR162.98 per share, MCap: USD32,065 million, QNBK QD / QNBK.QA