CAIRO, Jun 20 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's international cooperation minister, Sahar Nasr, renewed on Monday her calls to the African Development Bank (AfDB) to hand over the second half of their over $500 million loan to Egypt before next September.

The international cooperation ministry's statement said that a high-ranking official from the AfDB is currently on a visit to Egypt.

Nasr emphasized "the need for quick procedures for the withdrawal of the next batch of funding from the AfDB," which amounts to approximately $500 million, before next September.

The AfDB handed Egypt the first batch of the loans to support Egypt's budget, which also amounted to approximately $500 million, last January. The AfDB is set to loan Egypt a total of $1.5 bln over the course of three years.    

Egypt, which is heavily dependent on imports of food and energy, is facing a dollar shortage crisis. 

In an annual meeting with the bank last month, Nasr had also demanded that the second tranche of the loan be disbursed quickly.