Egypt and the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) signed a $1.5 billion loan agreement on Wednesday to support food and energy security in the north African country.
Since 2008, the ITFC has approved over $24bn in funding for Egypt to finance the energy sector, contribute to food security, and support small and medium-sized enterprises, ITFC CEO Adib Youssef al Aama said during the signing ceremony.
This includes $8.8bn in funding to the General Authority for Supply Commodities to support Egypt’s imports of food commodities, most notably about 12.6 million tonnes of wheat.
The ITFC also supported Egypt with foreign oil companies arrears that the government has pledged to completely pay off by the end of June.
Egypt has a long-standing bread subsidy scheme that costs upwards of $2.6bn annually and is relied upon by an estimated 70m citizens, making the country one of the world’s largest importers of wheat.
&uuid=(email))