Entrepreneurs feel funds squeeze

Despite an established record as a manufacturer and exporter, Ahmed Abdel Wahab, an Egyptian businessman, has been finding it difficult to get a bank to lend him E£10m ($1.8m) to invest in a new plant producing brake pads.

Mr Abdel Wahab already has E£25m ($4.5m) of equity in the business, and an established record exporting pads to Europe, but even so, lenders have been balking.

“Last year it would have been easier,” says Mr Abdel Wahab. “I have not failed yet. There are promising negotiations with a bank. But it has not been easy.”