A significant leap in 4 years, Alaa Farouk’s experience with Agricultural Bank of Egypt

The indicators of Agricultural Bank of Egypt have developed remarkably since Alaa Farouk assumed the presidency of the Bank's Board of Directors in February 2020, enabling him to achieve a series of successive successes, most notably the rapid and historic transfers in the Bank's main financial portfolios and a qualitative shift in the Bank's performance philosophy and services.

Alaa Farouk's first goal since taking the position has been to improve the situation in rural Egypt and the agriculture sector, to prepare the Bank to become a sophisticated development banking institution specializing in rural banking, agricultural finance and related sectors in addition to providing banking and financial services associated with government support programmes for farmers and peasants, The provision of financing programmes for SMEs and micro-enterprises, which Farouk has succeeded in achieving in a short period of time

In view of the outstanding performance of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt, First Bank monitors the highlights of the Bank's progress since Alaa Farouk took over the leadership in February 2020.

The Bank has achieved a remarkable development in its loans under Farouk, with its loans portfolio jumping by 135%, with an increase of EGP 45.9 bn, from EGP 34 bn by the end of February 2020, to EGP 79.9 bn in 2024, and the number of customers benefiting from these loans is about 543.2 customers, underscoring the success of the Bank's strategy.

Over the past year, the Bank has achieved a significant growth in the volume of loans directed at financing SMEs to approximately 64% of the loan portfolio.

The number of microenterprises financed by the bank at the end of December was about 438,943 for retail, while corporates received loans worth EGP 35.796 bn and a 9% development rate in 2023.

The number of small corporates financed by the Bank rose from 4.073 in 2021 to 6.614 by the end of December 2023, with loans volume of about EGP 6.497 bn at an 11% growth rate over the past year.

As for the number of intermediate corporates financed by the Bank, it increased from 75 companies by the end of 2021 to 118 companies by the end of December 2023, and they received loans worth EGP 4.989 bn at a growth rate of 50% over the past year.

The number of major corporates financed by the Bank also increased from 65 in 2021, reaching 166 corporates with loans volume of about EGP 16.698 bn by the end of December 2023, with a growth rate of 58% over the past year, a new achievement added to the Bank's achievements this year.

The significant rise in its loans portfolio was not the result of chance, but was driven by many components, notably the substantial support provided by the Central Bank of Egypt to the Bank, as well as the development strategy adopted by the Bank to develop and restructure all its sectors, as well as the new credit policies approved to link financing to production and serious projects.

At the level of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt’s deposit portfolio, Alaa Farouk managed to achieve accelerated growth in the deposit portfolio, which jumped from EGP 65 bn by the end of February 2020, to EGP 184.25 bn by the end of December 2023, with a growth rate of 183 .5% and an increase of EGP 119.25 bn, which reflects customer confidence in the bank's ability to manage their savings and facilitate their transactions.

Under Farouk's leadership, the Bank has played an active role in presidential initiatives. The Bank is a strategic partner in all national initiatives and projects launched by the State, including the Presidential Initiative Dignified Life, which represents an unprecedented start to the Egyptian village.

The Bank is working on a strategic plan to support the State's efforts to achieve the objectives of this initiative by expanding the availability of banking services in all villages. It has established new branches in the target villages, renovating and developing about 700 branches over the last 4 years, currently owning more than 1200 branches throughout Egypt.

Agricultural Bank of Egypt is also expanding the loans of small, medium and micro enterprises through concessional financing programmes to provide jobs and achieve economic empowerment of all groups to raise the standard of living and increase income rates. The Bank also works to achieve financial inclusion by organizing public conferences for financial education and banking awareness to enhance the banking awareness of peasants and villagers in the presence of governors, parliamentarians, executive leaders in the governorates; Launching awareness campaigns that roam the villages of a dignified life to raise awareness of the Bank's programmes, financing and banking services to motivate the rural population to work and produce.

In addition to supporting the most needy and first care groups within the bank's community responsibility programs, along with other development projects.

In terms of digital transformation, Farouk has accelerated the implementation of the Bank's digital transformation plan and digitization of all its services and achieving the national objectives of financial inclusion through the deployment of electronic payment and collection systems in the agricultural sector and the Egyptian countryside in addition to launching a range of digital products and smart applications that meet the needs of its customers to use digital banking services and find alternative payment channels.

The most prominent efforts of the Bank in that area were the establishment of electronic branches in cooperation with eFinance, the launch of a telephone platform of the Bank, and the provision of agricultural production loans fully electronically through the digital agricultural platform "AgriMisr" in cooperation with eAswaaq, and also launched smart bank cards in cooperation with the Central Bank, eFinance and the National Council for Women.

The Bank has established a project to develop and modernize the Data Center at the Bank's main center, thereby possessing an integrated technology system according to the latest global specifications that meets its operational needs and meets the needs of its customers in keeping with the latest banking methods, and ensures its ability to expand services, digital products and future updates in the Bank's business with the highest quality and security standards.