Egypt's International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr signed a grant deal with the African Development Bank (AFDB) on Thursday to restructure the state's Nasser Social Bank (NSB), the ministry stated on its website.

Under the terms of the deal, the Nasser Social Bank will receive of EGP 10 million as a first stage to improve its financial performance.

The NSB, which was founded in 1971 and services low-income Egyptians, is under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The bank will be directed to improve its performance through better credit management and improved work rules, according to Social Solidarity Minister Ghada Wali, who attended the signing of the deal.

Wali said that Nasser Social Bank, which has 90 branches nationwide, has had an important social role in Egypt, including providng young people with free-yield social loans, financing social housing projects and other social programmes such as providing support to divorced women.

According to Wali, the total amount paid by the bank to 245,000 divorced women in Egypt had reached EGP 1 billion by 2016.