“Most” of the companies participating in the state’s natgas vehicle swap scheme have submitted requests to raise their prices, Shorouk News reports, citing the initiative’s spokesman Tarek Awad. Under the rules of the scheme to switch passenger cars to run on natgas, companies can request to raise their prices by up to 10% if they can justify why. Late last year the Finance Ministry approved three such requests from manufacturers amid the global supply crunch, adding EGP 3-5k to the price of some vehicles. Some 13k dual-fuel cars had been delivered by the end of January under the scheme, which is expected to see 250k old cars swapped out with natgas-run cars by the end of 2023.

Are the Green for Growth and Sanad funds close to approving loans worth USD 50 mn to two banks for on-lending to SMEs? That’s what Al Mal reported yesterday, citing an interview with Mohamed Morsy, Egypt manager of impact investor Finance in Motion — a consultant to both funds. Morsy denied the news when we approached him yesterday, telling us that talks are still at an early stage and haven’t yet agreed on the size or timeline of the loans. The two funds loaned USD 75 mn to Banque Misr for green on-lending last month.