President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attended on Saturday the celebration of the National Youth Day at the Cairo Opera house where he promised great financial opportunities for the young generation. It was at the launch of “the Knowledge Bank” programme, which aims to gather the largest international encyclopaedias, research papers, theses, books, and articles in one website, that he made his statement.
El-Sisi has also pledged to reduce unemployment to 10 percent over the next five years, after rates reached 12.8 percent in December. Egypt’s banking sector will inject EGP 200bn ($25bn) to support small and medium businesses. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that it is the latest bid to support Egypt’s battered economy and create jobs
Stating that loan interest was the biggest obstacle facing youth, he continues, “I wish the loan interest would be even lower than five percent.” The president added, saying the loans would be especially given to youth in Upper Egypt and border-lying areas. Such loans could benefit up to 350,000 youth-run companies, which would provide jobs to over 4 million employees.
El-Sisi pointed out that investment in youth will “prevent them from being attracted to extremist and terrorist groups.” He assured that there are ways to fight terrorism globally other than through security or military solutions, by offering youth alternatives that will pull them away from terrorism.
Alongside, the central bank has announced on Sunday that under the new programme, interest rates on loans offered to SMEs would not exceed 5 percent, and in return for issuing the loans, participating banks will be permitted to reduce their level of required reserves held at the Central Bank by an amount equivalent to what they lend.
It aims to push the percentage of loans awarded to SMEs in the Egyptian economy up to at least 20 percent of its current worth, the CB statement added.
SME investments is deemed to be one of El-Sisi’s projects and attempts, aimed at developing youth. Last October, the president, urged the international community to financially support the Aswat Masriya website, which focuses on support in various fields including youth employment, training programmes, culture and education.
Many experts are assuming that this investment will solve the biggest problem that is facing the young entrepreneurs, which is the financing. It is important to note that Egypt’s economy has actually grew with about 4.2 percent last fiscal year.
