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Emirates NBD Egypt is offering a personal loan program that fully finances the purchase of solar panels in collaboration with two undisclosed solar companies, according to a statement. The loan period can extend up to 7 years, ranging from EGP 100k to EGP 1 mn, and allows customers to apply for a second loan after 12 months. NBD is among the first lenders in Egypt to extend individual loans for customers to install household solar panels.
Not Egypt’s first: The Commercial International Bank (CIB) also offers a 100% covered personal solar loan ranging from EGP 50k to EGP 1 mn. Qatar National Bank (QNB) Al Ahli also offers similar loans covering up to 80% of the product cost and reaching up to EGP 400k. Crédit Agricole Egypt also finalized developing a solar loan program last year.
REMEMBER- Green funding needs to be coupled with net-metering schemes to incentivize more residential solar uptake: Net metering and feed-in tariffs allow residential and commercial consumers to sell excess electricity generated back to the national grid, allowing them to offset the cost of electricity bills and shortening the time it takes to break even. However, under the FY 2021-2022 net metering tariff structure, households and businesses can make only EGP 1.0288 per kWh and EGP 1.0858 per kWh respectively selling power back to the grid. Prior to COP27, Egypt’s Electricity Regulation Authority amended some parameters to make net-metering more attractive.
