World Bank and African Fund visit Egypt to negotiate loans

A World Bank (WB) and African Fund delegation is currently visiting Egypt for some days, Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr told Ahram Online on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund-WB annual meetings.

The Egyptian government seeks to pick the best financial packages from the two international institutions, which began their visit Thursday for this purpose.

Negotiations on loans began during the annual IMF-WB meetings in Lima, Peru last week, when also the country visit was decided, said Nasr.

Egypt is negotiating a $3 billion loan from the World Bank, in addition to $1.5 billion from the African Fund to support development programmes in the state budget, according to Nasr.

"This type of funding is ready and available while the government decides how to allocate it in its different developmental programmes," Nasr added.

Additionally, the government seeks to negotiate another $2 billion loan from the World Bank and $1.5 billion from the African Fund to finance national projects, according to the minister.