Suez Canal investment certificates will be issued during the next week, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) governor Hisham Ramez told Al-Watan daily newspaper on Monday.

 

The central bank and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab had initially announced that certificates would be issued on 24 August but the date was postponed. 

 

The subscription will be managed by three public banks, Egypt's National Bank, Misr Bank and Banque du Caire.

 

Certificates will be issued in three categories LE10, LE100 and LE1,000 for Egyptians on the local market. Other certificates will be issued in dollars for Egyptians working abroad. 

 

Interest rates are set at 12 percent of certificate value in local currency and three percent for those in dollars.

 

Interest on the certificates will be paid per trimester and is higher than any other offering on saving tools in Egypt.

 

There will be no limit on the amount of investment certificates individuals and corporations can purchase in the new Suez Canal development project, Egypt's finance minister Hany Kadry Demian said earlier this month.

 

Earlier this month, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi launched a megaproject to build a 72 km long parallel artificial waterway alongside the Suez Canal in the coming year, at a projected cost of LE28 billion ($4 billion). A similar sum is needed for the digging of six tunnels that will link the east and west banks of the canal which brings the total to a sum of LE60 billion ($8.5 billion). 

 

The government will secure the remaining funding through a consolidated loan from Egyptian banks. It was decided to limit the finance of the digging of the new canal and the tunnels to Egyptians as a result of the sensitivity of the canal and its history. 

 

The new canal is part of the Suez Canal Development mega project, which includes the development of several seaports in the three governorates bordering the canal in order to transform the waterway into a hub of international investment and free trade zones.