Cairo University

Faculty of Economics & Political Science

Post graduate studies

Economic Department

Finance for Growth and Role of SMEs
An Application to Egyptian Case

Prepared by: 1- Amr Hassan Elkady 2- Nashwa Mohamed Hussein

Presented to: Prof. Hala El-Saied

2010 In September 2004, the Financial Sector Reform Program was launched and endorsed by the Government of Egypt at the highest political level. The five pillars of the program are reforming the banking sector, restructuring the insurance sector, deepening the capital markets, developing a well functioning mortgage market, and activating other non-bank financial institutions and services. The program aims at improving the soundness of the financial sector and promoting an enabling environment for an efficient, competitive and agile financial system that serves Egypt’s development and growth objectives.

The progress and pace of the Egyptian Financial Sector Reform Program have been commended at home and abroad. However, we still have some way to go to fully reform the sector and address its main challenges; one of which is ensuring better access to financial services which is imperative to economic growth and development. Improving access to finance allows businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, to capitalize on their growth potential, operate on a larger scale and turn initiatives and ideas into employment opportunities. Moreover better and wider access to financial services by households at all income levels positively impacts their economic and social welfare.
Micro finance is the provision of a broad range of financial services, such as deposits loans, payment services, money transfers and insurance to the poor and low income households and their micro-enterprises. We are concerned with SMEs because it has criteria that make it the core of development in both developing and developed countries especially after the world economic crisis. Also despite the efforts that has been deserved along the last fifteen years to develop this enterprises, it doesn't play areal role in the social or economic development yet.

In this paper we will concentrate on the situation of micro finance and SMEs in Egypt, what are the obstacles that face it and how to develop. The literature review indicates three approaches to develop the microfinance sector: the project, the institutional and microfinance sector development approach. We will discuss every approach to determine which one is better to follow. Also we will focus on the recommendations and the action plans that have been done by Egyptian economists or international institutions to reach the final recommendations of the paper.

The definition of microfinance:

Microfinance is a concept that means providing financial products and services to different groups of low-income. These services include lending, insurance, savings and transfer of funds to suit the needs and capacities of these groups. And the experiences of developing countries in different regions of the world prove that low income have high credit ratings and the percent of loans paying 95 to 98 percent.

The use of the terms "microfinance" and "micro credit", for historical reasons, specifically, was wrong in some cases, as is the micro-credit part of the financial sector micro finance that micro credit involved the granting of credit services to entrepreneurs with low-income, while containing microfinance lending, savings in addition to other financial services such as insurance and money transfers. And that Have shown evidence that the savings of the poor is in the same degree of importance of borrowing: This indicates the importance of microfinance on the grounds that a mixture of different financial services.

Microfinance clients are "economically active poor" or low-income individuals who are unable to enter the formal financial institutions. These clients must have economic opportunities and business skills to use the funds they receive for productive purposes not just for consumption. For that reason, the poorest of the poor or deprived are outside the target group of MFIs (Micro Finance institutions), also they includes small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

The concept of SMEs is subject of a great debate in the economic thinking and all who of these projects, so it is very difficult to have a specific and accurate definition for small enterprises, because of the multi-criteria used to define these projects, and the relatively of such criteria and standards and the different significance of these criteria from one country to another, depending on the degree of economic growth attained by the State.

With regard to Egypt, according to Law No. 121 of 2004 on the development of small enterprises:
In Article (1): Medium enterprises In accordance with the provisions of the law are defined as each company or individual enterprise engaged in economic activity productive or service or commercial, paid up capital of not less than fifty thousand pounds and not exceeding million pounds and not more than fifty employees working .

In Article (2): Micro enterprises In accordance with the provisions of the law are defined as each company or individual enterprise engaged in economic activity productive or service or trade and paid up capital of less than fifty thousand pounds.

Despite the issuance of this law, there is no specific definition of small enterprises and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt, where it differs from side to side, although most of them depend on the standard number of workers, and the size of the capital.

The properties of small projects:

Small and medium enterprises have a number of characteristics distinguish it from large-scale projects and indicates its importance in the economy and driving growth
, and here we are exposed to the most important of these characteristics:

1. Ease of Establishment:

These facilities are characterized by low capital required for its establishment and operation, as the procedures are easy to configure and has low expenses of incorporation and administrative expenses due to the ease and simplicity of its management structure and organizational structure.

2. Flexibility:

These projects are easily adapt production according to demand conditions, in the case of low demand, they tend to reduce production and the project does not bear large fixed costs, and that due to the lower fixed costs to variable costs, then it is capable of change and innovation in production commensurate with the demand conditions in domestic and foreign markets.

3. Adoption of most small projects on local raw materials available:

This ensures the continuation of its activities, and do not face any problems related to import of raw materials and production inputs from abroad.

4. Solidarity and joint action with large-scale projects:

This ends up creating a situation of specialization, and under that each of them to work in a production line for the other, the so-called association or subcontracting industries such as garments, the automotive industry.

5. Low levels of coefficient of capital to work:

Small industrial projects tend to use the arts to productive labor-intensive and use art lower productivity in terms of technological level, and this is reflected in the increased capacity of these projects to absorb surplus labor in the economy and reducing unemployment.

6. Decline in the absolute size of capital:

Where the absolute size of capital required for the establishment and operation of these projects were low in large projects, which indicate the property that small would be more attractive to small savers who do not tend to patterns of involvement, which deprives them of the direct supervision of their investments.

The importance of small projects:

In general there is importance to small and medium enterprises in employment and investment and higher rates of economic development, both in developed countries or developing countries, they represent: • 90% of the total facilities in the States, whether developing or developed. • 40% - 80% of the total volume of employment.

The importance of the small and medium enterprises in the Egyptian economy has many examples including:-

1. Create jobs and absorb unemployment:-

By comparing the relative distribution of the employees out the public institutions in years 1996, and 2006, we will find that:

( 80.6% of the workers working in micro-enterprises and small and medium enterprises.
(48% increase in the total number of employees in small and medium enterprises between the two censuses.

(Source: Council of Ministers of Egypt, the Centre for Information and Decision Support)

2. Maximize industrial output, resulting in a reduction of imports that may lead to increased exports leading to a reduction in the deficit in trade balance.

3. Usage of their savings.

4. Regional development because of its geographical spread: As with most large projects in Greater Cairo, Alexandria and the Suez Canal, and to the availability of basic services necessary to establish such projects, while small projects can spread geographically, where it resides next to the places of the necessary inputs for the production process without the need for a lot of the structure core are not available in these regions and this in turn limits the migration from rural to urban areas and reduce pressure on these cities.

5. Support large-scale projects: through several axes

( Preparation of skilled labor.
( Reduce production costs and increase the added value where the smaller half of the production of final goods and production inputs (feeder industries) because it is able to produce lower cost of large projects and supply of these projects through subcontracting.

Sources of funding:
The provision of funding for small business owners is one of the most important factors in the success of these projects; the real problem that corresponds to this kind of project is to provide funding for the construction of these projects or expansion.
There are many potential sources of small projects reliable, but we must differentiate between the existence of the source and the effectiveness of this source and its contribution to the real development of this type of projects, types of financing can be divided as follows:

1. Self-financing

2. Funding from financial institutions: This includes (commercial banks (Industrial Development Bank (National Bank for Development

3. Funding from non-bank institutions: This includes (Social Fund for Development (Credit Guarantee Company for Small Projects (Local Development Fund

4. The informal market: This includes (Mortgage moneylender (lending traders to their customers

We are exposed in the following tables for more of these institutions effective in the Egyptian market Institutions of government funding:-

(Table 1)
|Its Contribution in the development of small and medium enterprises |Association |
|Financing and administration of about 285.7 thousand of small size of the financing |Social Fund for Development |
|amounted to about 8.1 billion pounds during the period from January 1992 until June 2009 | |
|Financing and administration of 29.6 A small project finance size of 4.3 billion pounds |Industrial Development Bank and the|
|during the period (1976-2009). |Egyptian Workers |
|Providing funding and the amount of 5.2 billion pounds for small businesses during the |Nasser Social Bank |
|period (1973-2009). | |
|Financing of the 2.2 million family until 2008. |Productive Families Project |
|The funding of 84 thousand projects with funding of 299.2 million pounds for the workforce|Local Development Fund |
|during the period (1979-2009). | |
|Provision of soft loans for young people to establish small projects, valued at the loan |Development Bank and Agricultural |
|to the beneficiary per 50 thousand pounds |Credit |

(Source: Council of Ministers of Egypt, the Centre for Information and Decision Support)

The basic principles of microfinance; a Consultative Group has been Issued to Assist the Poor with the consent of all members of the thirtieth of development agencies and private institutions the basic principles of microfinance, adopted by Member States of the Group of Eight (G8) in 2004 as part of their commitment to increasing access to microfinance. These guidelines aim to confirm the notion that microfinance contributes to the sustainable reduction of fiscal deficit and poverty focus of these principles to the following points:

• Low-income groups do not need not only credit, but to a diverse array of financial services.
• Microfinance is a powerful tool to reduce the fiscal deficit and poverty.
• Microfinance means building financial systems that provide services to low-income groups.
• the financial sustainability of microfinance institutions is necessary to reach a large number of low-and low-income as the financial sustainability lead to lower transaction costs and provide better products.
• Microfinance is interested in the establishment of permanent local financial institutions able to provide a diverse array of financial products and services appropriate for low-and low-income
• microfinance does not suit everyone or every case , as who does not have a financial income needs to other forms of assistance by the utilization of loans.
• Select a higher ceiling of interest rates could limit the ability of MFIs to achieve financial sustainability and therefore damage the capacity of low and low-income access to financial services in the long term.
• The role of government is to create a supportive environment for the development of microfinance services, while protecting low and low income.
• The subsides from the donor agencies must be used for supporting institutional capacity building and infrastructure development of microfinance institutions and the integration of financial services to low-and low-income in domestic financial markets.
• Lack of institutional and human capacity is the key constraint, which requires the development of programs to build the capacities of all parties' concerned industry (institutions and bodies of supervision and control and donor agencies).

Challenges facing the business environment of small and medium enterprises:

Can be divided into constraints faced by small businesses to (non-financial constraints (financial constraints

Non-financial constraints: can be divided into:

• Marketing constraints
• Technical Barriers
•Administrative obstacles

Financing constraints:

( Lack of flexibility in some of the financing instruments. ( Funding problems: The difficulty of access to finance from formal institutions, such as banks or the Social Fund for Development, which may prevent their growth. (The high cost of small-scale loan (high risk of lending to small enterprises

The situation of the SMEs in Egypt:

Before reviewing the SMEs situation in Egypt, we need to propose the Legal environment and regulatory framework for microfinance industry in Egypt which is :-

The provision of micro credit in Egypt, either NGOs or banks,NGOs under the Law of Civil Associations and Institutions No. 84 of 2002, and the supervision of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The banks are subject to the Central Bank and the banking system and monetary No. 88 of 2003 and control of the Central Bank of Egypt. There are currently no other legal form allows providing microfinance in Egypt.

The volume of it in Egypt: At the end of 2009 the number of active borrowers were about 1.4 million borrowers - about half of them women, and the volume of active portfolio of about 2.2 billion pounds. And the largest proportion of active borrowers in the governorates of Upper Egypt (43 percent) and Lower Egypt (36 percent), and The proportion of active borrowers who run the business about 70 percent, and service activities about 20 percent of the total active borrowers. It provides micro-lending programs in Egypt more than 400 institutions including four banks and more than 395 of the Assembly. Despite this large number of providers of micro credit, but market studies indicate a financing gap estimated at about 90 percent.

About six associations, and a Bank holds the largest share of existing clients of micro credit and approximately 65 percent are Businessmen Association, Assiut, and the Egyptian Association for Development and Enterprise Development (LEED), and the Businessmen Association in Alexandria and the Egyptian Society for the development of small and craft projects, and the Association of businessmen and investors to help develop community Dakahlia, the Bank of Cairo, Solidarity Program. Acquires while the rest of the association (more than 395 Association) to 25 percent and the rest of the banks (three banks and companies) to 10 percent of existing customers. And the spread in the Egyptian market mechanism have Micro credit: Lending solidarity and individual lending. Solidarity lending depends on the existence of a group of borrowers (of between three and five members) getting a single loan is divided equally among them. All members of the group guarantors each other in the payment and repayment of the loan is a week or half a month in a period of between ten and forty a week. The loan amount ranges between 50 pounds to 1500 pounds per capita within the group and used the loan to finance income-generating activities, which is located mostly in the informal sector. The individual lending depends on the loan to one individual - which is usually the owner of a small business or micro-list for more than a year - to have a personal guarantor. The loan size ranges between 500 pounds to 25.000 pounds, sometimes up to about 100.000 pounds. The monthly payment is made in a period ranging between four months and two years.

The importance of SMEs in the Egyptian Economy:

(More than 50% of the clients of this activity of women in Egypt, which in turn helps to reduce widespread poverty within this category in particular, help the ladies to sponsor a number of family members in case the father in this role. (The spread of microfinance in Upper Egypt on the sea, which means that it may be an effective tool in the fight against widespread poverty in these governorates as it boasts the highest rates of poverty at the level of the Republic in the governorate of Assiut, Sohag and Qena..

And regards its difficulties in Egypt it is the same that face the industry of SMEs, in addition to:

(Lack of appropriate standards in lending to small enterprises to the environment of small enterprises in Egypt. (Length of the procedure for granting the loan and the reluctance of banks to lend to small enterprises (Absence of a uniform legislative framework for this activity in Egypt . (Lack of uniformity in the regulatory supervisory in charge of this activity in Egypt . (( The absence of appropriate institutional framework, administrative and technical staff appropriate to expand in this area in Egypt. (Lack of adequate data in this area which make it difficult for workers and whom cares about this field to develop it and enhance its progress:-

(Problems relating to the granting of a credit for the poor, such as: high financial risk expected from the inability of the client to close the loan and the lack of guarantees for lending him this. (Difficulty to reach the poor because of this geographical spread . (Non-Proliferation of a culture of micro-financing between these groups

Three: Approaches to develop the microfinance sector:
III-1-The institutional approach for microfinance sector development
The literature review indicates three approaches to develop the microfinance sector: the project, the institutional and microfinance sector development approach (David S. Gibbons and Jennifer W. Meehan)

Firstly the project approach in microfinance is often defined in terms of the number of clients (beneficiaries) that have received credits. Sustainability of the MFI nor the project does not play a role in this approach. What matters is the provision of credits to a minimum number of people and the disbursement of funds by a revolving fund, the selection of beneficiaries and the collection of repayments to disburse them as new loans.

Secondly, in the traditional case of the institutional approach, the donor of an institution is often interested in the financial performance and in the loan portfolio quality as funding is sometimes related to performance. Hence MFI should adhere to sound microfinance principles. In this approach the strategy is to conduct institutional appraisal to decide on funding and support for different institutions.

Thirdly the microfinance sector development is a more comprehensive approach that perceives microfinance services as an integrated part of the financial system. In this respect a coordinated strategic approach to building microfinance is seen as the most effective approach to ensure the growth and sustainability of this sector. The strategy is to create a shared vision on sector development and to establish a national strategy for the development of the microfinance sector (David S. Gibbons and Jennifer W. Meehan , 2000).

There is a combination between the second and third approach to discuss an institutional approach for microfinance sector development developed by Dr. Heba Nassar and that is what I am going to introduce in the next section.
The objective of this combination is setting an institutional framework for microfinance development strategy in Egypt in order:
1-to create a policy environment conducive to integrate the microfinance in the financial sector of the economy (transparency, governance, information base, human, infrastructure, financial,..)
2-to support strong institutions of micro finance and
3-to -finally - increase the outreach and number of borrowers.
This approach requires:
A- A clear consensus among the government, the donors and the major players within the sector regarding the importance of the microfinance, the definition of the target group, the understanding of its needs and the responsibilities to be undertaken by the main players to create the conducive policy environment (policy level).
B- The sufficient establishment of financial intermediaries (bank and non-bank financial institutions) to promote this sector and raise its viability (institutions).
C-The existence of supportive programs work for the support of an operational microfinance sector within the financial sector as a whole (programs).

III-2-Challenges facing the institutional approach for microfinance development in Egypt: a- Macroeconomic Environment
Previous studies revealed that the policy environment for microfinance remains unfavorable due to the following reasons:
• Lack of microfinance awareness
• Under-representation of micro-enterprises requiring microfinance
• Inefficient financial policy environment
• Lack of small business culture by Egyptian banks
• Lack of successful microfinance programs
• Distorted interest rates
• Insufficient non bank credit institutions
• Lack of mapping of microfinance programs

b-Culture (El-Gamal M. & etl, 2001.)
Culture can play an obstacle against the expansion of microfinance because of two main reasons:
• Muslim religious beliefs with respect to money management, profit, debt, and interest are an obstacle against the expansion of borrowing and lending practices in general due to the prohibition of applying interest rates in financial transactions.
• Moreover western scoring systems, which have been designed in a different cultural, religious, financial, and operational (technology, infrastructure) context with respect to borrowing and lending practices can be resisted by community organization and NGOs, which will apply their scoring systems.
c) Financial Limitations:
• Credit guarantee programs are limited to pilot initiatives and do not yet focus on the needs of microfinance.
• Quasi-equity and equity financing for growth poses another major challenge in the absence of structured informal and formal venture capital markets and access to public equity markets.
d) Operational Limitations:
Most institutions lack the capacity to meet the technical requirements of offering attractive financial services due to several operational limitations. Pricing policies of microfinance institutions might be an obstacle against generating enough revenues to cover operational costs such as depreciation and loan losses and to achieve financial sustainability (Nassar, 2006).
e) Inadequate legal and regulatory infrastructure (Hennie van Greuning & etl, 1998)
Microfinance sector lacks:
• a legal framework conducive for emergence and sustainable growth of small scale financial institutions.
• regulatory and supervisory systems
• An institutional set up similar to banks operating along comparable prudential regulations as non-bank credit institutions are prohibited from collecting savings.
• Governance regulations for NGOs which heavily rely on donor funds.
f)-Lack of infrastructure and unfulfilled basic needs.
g) Sustainability and outreach.
• Microfinance institutions in Egypt could not achieve a certain level of outreach in terms of number of borrowers—to benefit from economies of scale.
• MFIs in Egypt do not generate surplus funds for reinvestment to serve the growing number of small entrepreneurs.
h) Lack of management and financial information
i) Cost-effective programs.
The search for the most cost-effective organizational form for large banking institutions to incorporate micro-finance in an organization is an important challenge facing the Egyptian Banking System
Many banks had high salary structures that could be reduced by recruiting staff, who do not necessarily have university degrees. Most could improve staff productivity levels through improved operating procedures and incentive systems.
Independent profit or cost centers may be a cost-effective strategy for many of the large, multi-service banks. The separation of programs helps isolate the costs of the micro-finance program and identify appropriate cost-saving measures (Baydas, M& et.al.1998).
j) Governance and prudential regulations:
K) Lack of Transparency

Part Four: Towards an institutional framework for developing the microfinance sector in Egypt.
A workable policy framework is required for concerted actions of governmental, nongovernmental and donor organizations to promote this sector and integrate the banking sector in it, expand financial intermediaries and develop this sector.
To achieve this objective the Egyptian government must agree upon the mission for a long term public policy to create a viable and effective credit guarantee environment for the poor through direct and indirect policies.

IV-1-Mission
The mission for a financial viable microfinance sector should be “Micro Finance as an integral part of the countries’ financial system”
This mission should be adopted through direct measures and indirect supportive measures.
IV-2-Direct measures:
Direct policy measures include policies, institutions and programs to support directly the microfinance sector in Egypt.
IV-2-a-Policy environment
• Transparency.
• Regional policy to achieve an even regional distribution of MFIs.
• Public Awareness: In Egypt, as in other developing countries, development activities are often confused with charity activities. There should be a public awareness of the economic and social importance for developing MFIs among government officials, decision- makers, potential actors and investors (NGOs, bank, private Sector), opinion makers (newspapers, media,..etc)
• Inducing a demand oriented microfinance policy, which enables the creation of viable microfinance institutions.
• Creating and supervising of regulations and norms, that encourage sound and responsive microfinance operations (David S. Gibbons and Jennifer W. Meehan)
• Establishing of a conducive policy environment for integration of the banking system to have it as a significant player in microfinance, because of the advantages from branch office infrastructure and the ability to mobilize resources. In addition banking institutions are fulfilling the conditions of ownership, financial disclosure, and capital adequacy that help ensure prudent management, they have well established internal controls and administrative and accounting systems to keep track of a large number of transactions, their ownership structures of private capital tend to encourage sound governance structures, cost-effectiveness, and profitability, all of which lead to sustainability. Most important banks have deposits and equity capital so that they do not have to depend on volatile donor resources.
• Improving the governance and transparency of financially self sufficient NGOs, diversifying their capital and refinance base, securing their market driven sustainability, attracting higher calibers, maximizing their earning potential and equalizing the competition with banks engaged in microfinance (Shams El-Din, Ashraf (1997)
IV-2-b-Institutions
i- Expansion of the government loan guarantee programs:
_ In several countries the policy focus was on the expansion of government loan guarantee programs and effective credit guarantee scheme including leasing, improvement of micro-credit facilities, and improved access to credit in rural areas, youth and women and higher risk small and micro business. This is important as many SMEs still face difficulty in getting loans because they are start-ups, operate in non-standard markets, lack credit history, have inadequate collateral and need long-term capital. ii - Expansion of SMEs Specialized Policy Banks:
• The more specialized and independent the micro-finance unit is, the easier is it to institute appropriate micro-finance lending methodologies and to draw policies, and procedures to avoid interference from the larger bank culture (Baydas, M & etl.1998). Small and specialized banks appear to have stronger institutional commitment to microfinance. All of the small and specialized banks have small ownership structures, and most have larger percentages of their portfolio in microfinance. Thus, their institutional culture is geared toward servicing lower income clients with specialized products (Baydas, M& etl. 1998). iii- Special funds for deprived areas iv- Community Funds v- Venture Capital Funds: vi-The Apex
APEX lending strategies are recommended whereby a second-level wholesale organization (the APEX) channels donor resources downstream through a network of independent retail institutions to service micro-enterprise borrowers. Allocation decisions to specific retail institutions would also be delegated to these APEX institutions. Given the new role donors and governments should provide to microfinance it is important to channel donor resources through wholesale units rather than attempting to reach NGOs or banks directly. This procedure should not combat the freedom of retail institutions in setting their own creditworthiness criteria and conduct their own evaluation of risk (Nassar, 2006).
Vii-Islamic microfinance
Establishing a nation-wide credit scoring service and credit bureau system in a country like Egypt might require a design and delivery attention to principles of Islamic Banking and “Islamic Principles for Credit Scoring”. This would be important to study the functions of Islamic Principles in financing projects without a fixed rate of interest but based on concept of partnership.
IV-2-C-Microfinance programs:
To promote a financially viable sector emphasis should be placed on ensuring the effectiveness of assistance programs to improve access to financial advisory services, venture capital, regional and community-based microfinance initiatives (World Bank, 1996). These programs aim for increasing allocations for micro-business through securitization of guaranteed loans, encouraging community based initiatives and expanding bank credit allocations for business. Stimulating retail investors through loss sharing arrangements are programs to overcome the risks of lending. The most famous programs to enhance effective micro-finance are programs aiming to establish pilot funds for start ups’ expenses, technical assistance, information seminars on the microfinance market and trips to successful programs.

IV-3-Indirect Measures ( USAID (1997):
These measures are important to ensure the proper policy environment for microfinance sector development. i- Legal framework ii- Taxing system focus particularly on progressive income tax(Australia) as well as capital gains treatment. iii- Performance evaluation criteria include:
1. Economic and financial viability of the micro-credit borrowers, including: dropout rate, percentage of loans outstanding, savings rate, member/ borrower ratio, operational, financial and economic self reliance and quality of portfolio.
2. Program implementation, including: group members as a percentage of total target population, group cohesiveness, borrower attendance at weekly meetings, loan disbursement and recovery rate, skills of field workers and accounting systems.
3-Financial management and internal control, including: MIS, accounting system, internal audit, internal supervision and budgetary practices.
4-Status of physical assets, including ownership of building, land, furniture and vehicles (David S. Gibbons and Jennifer W. Meehan). iv- Human Resource Development Program v: Debt Financing. vi: Outreach initiatives are important with the introduction of new areas. vii: Information viii- Regulatory Framework: vix- Competition and Transparency x- Operational Efficiency and Self – Sufficiency xi- Research & Development

References

Arabic books

1. محمود صبح، رأس المال العامل وتمويل المشروعات الصغيرة، البيان للطباعة والنشر، 1999. 2. فريد النجار، إدارة المشروعات والأعمال الصغيرة المشتركة الجديدة، الإسكندرية، مؤسسة شباب الجامعة، 1999. 3. أثر التمويل متناهي الصغر في مصر دراسة مسحية،مؤسسة بلانيت فاينانس – مصر،2008. 4. المؤتمر الثالث للإصلاح العربي "التحديات والمشاغل التى تواجه منظمات المجتمع المدني" القروض الصغيرة،مارس 2006. 5. فادى محمود إبراهيم ،دور المؤسسات غير المصرفية فى تمويل المشروعات الصغيرة فى مصر، المنظمة العربية للعلوم والثقافة ،يونيو2007.

English books
1- Ingrid Matthäus-Maier, J. D. von Pischke, New Partnerships for Innovation in Microfinance, Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2008.
2- El Mahdi Alia and Osman Magued, An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Small and Micro-Enterprise Finance in Employment Creation, economic research forum, Working Paper 0313, 2003.
3- Michael U. Klein, Nasr Sahr and Others, Access to Finance and Economic Growth in Egypt, World Bank, 2006.
4- Dhumale Rahul, Sapcanin Amela and Tucker William, Commercial Banking and Microfinance in Egypt: National Bank for Development Case Study, United Nation Development Program, 2006.
5 - USAID (1997). “Financial Reform for Small Business Development in Egypt,
Development Economic Policy Reform Analysis Project Report. Nathan Associate
Egypt.
6- David S. Gibbons and Jennifer W. Meehan, 2000, The Micro credit Summit’s Challenge: Working towards Institutional Financial Self-Sufficiency while Maintaining a Commitment to Serving the Poorest Families, CASHPOR.
7- Nassar Heba, 2006, The Institutional Framework for Microfinance Development in Egypt, Egypt.
8- El-Gamal M. & et al, 2001. “Beyond Credit: A Taxonomy of SMEs and Financing Methods for Arab Countries”. Working Paper No 57, May.
Web Sites http://www.sme.gov.eg/arabic/publications_ara.htm http://www.namaa.gov.eg/Information/Legislations/LegislationsMainPage.aspx http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-94888-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html http://www.sfdegypt.org/ http://www.kenanaonline.com/page/SME www.akdn.org/microfinance www.planetfinance.org www.smepromotionegypt.info
www.undp.org.eg