Libya - September 2013: In the recent speech, Mr. Akkari, chairman of Jumhouria Bank, the largest bank in Libya, noted that the upcoming period will witness major developments by the Central Bank of Libya. These developments are related to new products and services, and, most importantly, to housing loans, which will be given out to those clients who want to buy houses that are built and ready to be sold.

The development is a result of the memorandum of understanding signed between the Central Bank of Libya and the Ministry of Housing. The MOU deals with the finances available to customers who wish to purchase a finished housing unit, ready to be sold.

As specified in the memorandum, Akkari - acting as a representative - will ensure that the funds will be reinvested through Jumhouria Bank into the housing sector. This will be accomplished by allowing the customers to purchase the housing units through leasing schemes and to benefit from less complex financing structures and streamlined instalments.

Akkari also talked about bank's readiness to finance small and medium-scale projects (up to $500 million) in the event of a failure of the government's guarantees to provide grants for those projects.

Furthermore, the chairman described new banking services and initiatives, such as student credit-debit cards. To date, Jumhouria Bank has already disbursed 150,000 cards to students all over Libya. The universities that participate in this initiative should soon provide the bank with accurate data on the progress.

In addition, Jumhouria Bank is supporting the development of Libyan aviation sector. The bank recently acted as a leader in an effort to issue a large syndicated loan, along with Sahara (BNP-Paribas), National Commercial Bank, Wahda and the Libyan Foreign Bank in excess of $1 billion Libyan dinars.

This loan to Libyan Airlines is to help finance its aircraft purchasing programme; this loan was taken out in 2010 for an order made for Airbuses in 2007.

The largest bank of Libya is also involved in a discussion with the Libyan power company about the option of financing renewable projects, such as the new solar power plants (worth 1 billion Libyan dinars).

The bank has also reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry on the financing of new industrial zones and factories.

According to Suleiman Ali Al-Taif Al-Fitur, Minister of Industry of Libya, "We need to start evaluating the proposals from the developers for these projects. We need to start setting up the financing procedures for them. The SME projects can be set up very quickly, most will be skid mounted and will require large infrastructure. We are planning about 40 industrial zones; around 10 are ready to go ahead in terms of infrastructure activities. Some of them have already started and we will distribute these zones for the industrial projects."

This goes in line with the ministry's vision to increase the representation of the industry in the GDP to 30% by 2030.

Akkari concluded his speech by mentioning the upcoming launch of a new Visa Card, which will benefit the citizens that are frequent international travellers.

Written by Osama Humaydan
(Based on the speech of Mr. Akkari, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Jumhouria Bank, the leading bank in Libya)