Microfinance Industry Profile: Egypt

This report provides stakeholders with an overview of the microfinance sector and latest trends in Egyptian microfinance.

Egypt is the largest microfinance market in the Arab world, with a population of about 75.5 million people and average annual population growth of approximately 1.7%. Characteristics of Egyptian microfinance include:

• More than 1 million active clients and a gross loan portfolio of US $324 million;
• Penetration of only 8% with a gap of about 16 million microfinance clients;
• Providers such as banks, NGOs and service companies;
• Limited product mix, with microcredit in the form of commerce being the largest product offering;
• Meso-level organizations that include local and international organizations, networks and credit bureaus;
• Legal and regulatory reform measures to restructure financial sector and state-owned enterprises;
• Policies that aim to improve allocation of public resources;
• No comprehensive microfinance law;
• Dependency of MFIs on donor funding and lack of currency funding.

Finally, the report states that few studies have assessed the impact of microfinance in Egypt.