Egypt's financial watchdog gets grant from WB for microfinance

The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) got a four- million-dollar grant from the Wold Bank for boosting the legislative and institutional framework of microfinance activities in Egypt, the authority said in a statement on Wednesday.
The grant will be provided by the bank's Mena Transition Fund over four years, the statement said.
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to the poor and low-income clients.
As per the grant, the authority, which is supervising and regulating MF activities in Egypt, will set up an independent unit to supervise MF activities at Non-governmental organizations and develop mechanisms regulating this kind of finance, head of the authority Sherif Sami said after the signing ceremony.
He expressed hope that a currently-being-debated bill regulating microfinance in Egypt would be issued soon to allow for the first time companies to operate in this domain.