The World Bank has provided Egypt with the first $1 billion tranche of a $3 billion loan, as part of its support for the government's economic programme, the Ministry of International Cooperation said Friday.
The money will be used to “create job opportunities and improve citizens’ living standards,” Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said in a statement.
The loan is part of the government's effort to secure billions of dollars in aid from various lenders to help revive the country's economy and ease a dollar shortage that has crippled recovery.
This includes a three-year fund of $4.5 billion from the World Bank ($3 billion) and the African Development Bank ($1.5 billion), Ithe minister added in the statement published on the ministry's website.
Cairo has now received $1.5 billion of the financing, the minister said--with Friday's tranche as well as the first $500 million of the ADB loan received late last year.
The funding will be directed at "labour-intensive projects and achieving sustainable economic debeploment," Nasr said.
The government is already working on finalising the second tranche of $1.5 billion from the World Bank, as well as from the African Development Bank, the minister said.
In August Egypt reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund to secure a three-year $12 billion loan facility. The deal requires Cairo to secure a further $6 billion in bilateral financing.
