Prime Highlights
- Egypt puts EGP 5 billion in the 2025–26 budget for financing micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
- The scheme targets enhancing local manufacturing, export, and start-ups owned by youth through low-cost financing.
Key Fact
- It is Egypt’s biggest single-shot funding package ever to be made available for MSME growth.
- The scheme targets tax-incentivized firms under the unified tax regime as well as priority sectors.
Key Background
In a significant step towards the promotion of economic development and entrepreneurship, Egypt’s Ministry of Finance has allocated an EGP 5 billion budget package in fiscal year 2025–26 to the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development. The budget will be executed through the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) with a primary objective of pushing sustainable development, creating employment opportunities, and improving industrial and export capacities.
The funding deal comes as Egypt is witnessing a robust resurgence of startup action. Startups in the MENA region collectively accumulated $289 million in 44 deals in May alone, with Egypt securing $125 million of that figure, including a significant $75 million round for real estate portal Nawy. The resurgence of entrepreneurial action proves a healthy ecosystem poised to receive increased support from the state.
Affordable credits and easy availability of credits will be extended to enterprises in the new Simplified and Unified Tax System. Tax-relieved enterprises, local manufacturers, export-oriented enterprises, and youth projects receive special emphasis. The package is geared towards their business potential and raising their contribution to Egypt’s GDP and job creation.
Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk and MSMEDA CEO Basel Rahmi signed on to the deal to trigger this strategic financial boost. The move, said Rahmi, indicates the ministry’s commitment to harmonizing financial policy with economic empowerment objectives. Egyptian startups raised $228 million in disclosed and undisclosed rounds since January—a staggering 130% year-on-year increase. This public investment of great size now complements the flow of private capital further to further enhance Egypt’s standing as a regional pioneer in SME growth and innovation.
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