The Arab African International Bank (AAIB), which is held in equal parts by the Central Bank of Egypt and the Kuwait Investment Authority, recently launched Sandah, a microfinance institution intended to promote “financial inclusion to accommodate the low-income disenfranchised segments” by funding the “commercial, agricultural, industrial and service sectors categorically all across Egypt.”
Hassan Abdalla, who serves as the CEO of both AAIB and Sandah, said, “Over half a century, AAIB accomplished a distinctive record in financing large corporates in Egypt and the region. At this stage of Egypt’s development and given the evolving, dynamic socio-economic landscape, the bank is keen to penetrate the microfinance sector…”.
Sandah is 70-percent owned by AAIB and 30-percent held by the Luxembourg-domiciled Sanad Fund for MSME (Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise).
AAIB was founded in Egypt in 1964. As of September 2017, it reports USD 11 billion in total assets and quarterly profits of USD 70 million.
Sanad was founded in 2011 and is domiciled in Luxembourg. An initiative of German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), it is funded by KfW, Germany’s GLS Bank and the EU, as well as development finance institutions of the Austrian, German and Swiss governments. Sanad invests in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Yemen with an emphasis on Egypt and Tunisia. As of 2016, the fund has raised total investor commitments of USD 186 million. It is advised by Germany’s Finance in Motion, which manages assets valued at EUR 1.6 billion (USD 1.7 billion) as of 2017.
Sources and Additional Resources:
AAIB on Sandah
https://www.aaib.com/pages/Sandah
AAIB financials
https://www.aaib.com/en/financialSynopsis
Sanad fact sheets
https://www.sanad.lu/publications/fact-sheets
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