Evaluation Summary - « Access to finance » component of the SASME project, Egypt

The overall objective of the SASME Project (CEG1046) was to support the efforts of the Government of Egypt to create job opportunities and income generation in rural areas and develop the agricultural sector. More specifically, the access to finance components aimed to improve Agricultural SME’s access to finance and build banks’ capacities to serve agricultural SMEs.

The SASME Project has provided the Egyptian banking sector with an innovative and highly relevant combination of tools to support agricultural lending. Despite a long preparation phase and the Covid crisis, the Project has achieved very good results, leveraging existing schemes and relying on experienced partners. The credit scheme has however suffered from a heavy process, a limited leverage, and, at the end of the implementation period, a decreasing relevance/attractiveness due to the introduction of the Central Bank’s “5% initiative”, which might end soon.