World Bank Group Has Mobilised Nearly $6.7 Billion of Private Capital for Egypt

By The Edge Research Team

The World Bank Group has mobilised nearly $6.7 billion of private capital for Egypt since fiscal year 2022, the group said on Wednesday, citing mortgages and a Red Sea port.

The total matters because Egypt needs jobs at scale: the group estimates the country must create 1.3 million a year to keep pace with its growing workforce. In The Edge’s reading, the housing programme is the most telling example in the story, because it shows public money drawing in several times its value in bank lending to buyers the banks could not serve before.

The figures come from a feature story, not a press release, and the group gives the total as one figure for all three arms since fiscal year 2022. The same total appeared on 2 November in the release on IFC’s investment in Banque du Caire, which was set out on our pages that day.

Three arms of the group bring private money to Egypt

The group splits the task three ways. The World Bank works on the policies, institutions and markets that let private firms take part; IFC invests alongside companies and raises further private money; and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) guarantees investors against political and other non-commercial risks.

Alwaleed Fareed Alatabani, the World Bank’s Division Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, said job creation will depend “not only on how much capital is available, but on where it flows”.

Over the past two decades the country has created an average of 600,000 jobs a year, the group says, and the pressure is not Egypt’s alone. Worldwide, 1.2 billion young people will reach working age over the next 10 to 15 years, the feature says.

It expects an estimated 400 million jobs to be created over the same period, one for every three of them. Nine of every 10 jobs in developing economies come from the private sector, it adds.

The World Bank’s own lending runs alongside this work. Its $1 billion GROWTH II development policy financing, signed on 1 November, was set out on our pages.

Housing subsidies draw $6.53 of private mortgage finance for every $1

The clearest case is housing, where the World Bank has lent $1 billion over the past decade. The money came in two equal operations of the Inclusive Housing Finance Program, approved in 2015 and 2020, with the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund as the implementing agency.

The World Bank financing has enabled the government to offer down-payment subsidies that bring monthly mortgage costs within reach of lower-income families. That lets both public and private banks lend to a segment of buyers they could not serve before.

On the group’s figures, the programme has produced $2.88 billion of private mortgage finance on the back of $441 million of government support. That is $6.53 of private mortgage finance for every $1 of government support, in line with the feature’s own measure of around six and a half pounds for each pound.

Nearly 750,000 families have bought homes through the programme, the group says. The group estimates the activity created 3.8 million jobs across construction, materials and services.

An earlier World Bank feature, published in March, said more than 693,000 low-income households had been helped into formal housing. It counted 31 public and private lenders in the programme. The same story said more effort was needed to widen private participation in the programme.

By the same account, Egypt’s mortgage market had grown to more than 16 times its 2014 size in dollar terms by 2026. More than 580,000 low-income families applied to the national programme in 2025.

A quarter of participants are women heading their households. Of those women, 90% had never dealt with a financial institution before, the March story said.

The two features measure jobs differently. The March story estimated 4 million jobs in construction, while the November story puts the figure at 3.8 million across construction, materials and services, without linking the two estimates.

The Inclusive Housing Finance Program in figures

From the feature stories of 4 November and 4 March 2026 and the project records for the programme and its additional financing; the November feature counts families who bought homes and the March feature households helped, so the two figures are not compared.

IFC backs a new multipurpose terminal at Safaga

IFC provided $61 million of financing for a new terminal that AD Ports Group is building at Safaga on the Red Sea, the feature says. It also helped mobilise up to $158.9 million of further private capital for the project.

Once running, the terminal is expected to handle around 450,000 containers a year, by the group’s estimate. The story links it to jobs in construction, trade, shipping and logistics.

IFC’s disclosure for the project, number 48312 under the name “Safaga port”, describes a multipurpose terminal for dry and liquid bulk, containers and roll-on roll-off traffic. The operator is Safaga Terminal Operating Company SAE, a special purpose vehicle owned by Abu Dhabi Ports Group.

The company holds a 30-year concession signed with the Red Sea Ports Authority in December 2023. The authority builds the marine works, while the company supplies the cranes, equipment and other superstructure.

The site lies south of the existing Safaga port, serving Upper Egypt, a region of 23 million people that now relies on distant ports such as Sokhna, according to the disclosure.

The total cost is put at $208.9 million, of which $175.8 million goes on the superstructure. Financing is split between equity and shareholder loans, at 45%, and senior debt, at 55%.

The debt includes an IFC A loan of up to $50 million and up to $11 million from what the disclosure calls the MCPP fund, with parallel loans making up the rest.

IFC’s board figure, marked indicative, is $54.0 million, mostly a $51.0 million loan. The board approved the project on 11 November 2025, and the financing was signed on 22 January 2026.

The investment was made on 26 May 2026, the disclosure shows.

Safaga terminal financing (in $ millions)

Costs and loan limits from the summary of investment information for project 48312, last updated 29 May 2026; the four cost lines add up to the total. The feature of 4 November 2026 puts the private capital IFC helped mobilise at up to $158.9 million.

Separately, IFC invested $100 million in Banque du Caire’s initial public offering this week, for a stake it put at an estimated 7%; the deal was set out on our pages. The EBRD invested the same amount.

With support from IFC’s investment, the bank expects to more than double the number of customers it finances, to 1.9 million, by 2030, IFC said.

A MIGA guarantee brings bond investors to Benban solar

MIGA issued a $98.3 million guarantee to Virtuo Finance S.a.r.l., which refinanced six of Scatec’s operating solar plants at Benban through a green bond. The guarantee runs for 19 years.

Benban, which the feature calls Africa’s largest photovoltaic solar park, sits in Aswan. The six plants have 380 megawatts of capacity, have operated since 2019 and belong to Egypt’s Solar Feed-in-Tariff Program.

The bond, which the group describes as a first of its kind, drew more than $100 million of private capital. It brought long-term institutional investors into the sector for the first time, the feature says.

The refinancing lowered financing costs, and the savings are shared with the government.

Including this deal, MIGA’s guarantees in Egypt’s energy sector have mobilised nearly $950 million of private capital, the feature says. That total is not dated from 2022, so it is not set against the $6.7 billion.

The group ends its story with the argument behind all three examples: public resources will stay important for Egypt, but they cannot meet the country’s investment needs alone.

Figures are from the World Bank Group feature story of 4 November 2026, the World Bank feature story of 4 March 2026 and its project records for the Inclusive Housing Finance Program (P150993 and P168582), the IFC press release of 2 November 2026 and IFC’s summary of investment information for project 48312; percentages, ratios and comparisons not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.

Sources: World Bank Group, IFC, The Edge.

Get Complimentary Insights

Follow us