Egypt accounted for nearly half of the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) MENA investments in FY2017-18, Chief Investment Officer for the MENA region Deepak Khanna tells Gulf News. Of the USD 2.4 bn the IFC invested across the region throughout the fiscal year, the organization channeled USD 1.3 bn to Egyptian companies in the solar, agri-business, micro-financing, and oil and gas sectors. “We believe Egypt is coming back and the environment continues to improve, we are seeing more private activity there and plan to invest more in the future,” Khanna said. The IFC has committed to extending as much as USD 2 bn in funding to Egypt’s private sector until 2019 under the country’s cooperation framework with the World Bank Group. According to Khanna, the organization will focus on closing infrastructure gaps in the power and transport sectors in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) provided a USD 350 mn funding package for the EGP 12 bn 580 MW Gabal El Zeit wind farm , which President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inaugurated last week. JICA support 17 power projects in Egypt with some USD 2.1 bn in funding, the organization said in a release.