On the cusp of International Women’s Day, Forbes Middle East unveiled its annual Power Businesswomen in the Middle East list, packed with 100 leaders at the top of some of the most influential and transformational companies in the MENA region. “Most people on this list have worked their way up a steep career ladder for decades to reach the top of their professions,” said the Forbes report. “If there were glass ceilings to be smashed, these are the titans that first smashed them.” Forbes cited nine Egyptian women, and we sat down with five to get their thoughts on the…
Author: Ola Noureldin
Real estate is a cornerstone of Egypt’s economic vision, though many say it is in the midst of a slowdown driven by low purchasing power. Business Monthly spotlights the sector through the eyes of four key players. Magued Sherif, managing director of SODIC Properties How do you evaluate market activity post-devaluation? Magued Sherif: Things have become very challenging, with higher construction costs and the skyrocketing of interest rates. Income has not risen by the same level, as we were hit by inflation. This has had an impact on affordability. However, the market continues to be very strong, because underlying fundamentals…
That relaxing morning shower comes at a cost: 95 liters (25 gallons) of water down the drain. Multiply that by 90 million people, and more than 8.7 million liters is used every day. One 10-minute shower each morning is the equivalent of at least 100,000 glasses of drinking water every year, according to U.N. estimates. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says the largest share — 69 percent — of the world’s annual water use goes to agriculture, primarily irrigation, while industry accounts for 19 percent and households 12 percent. Egypt uses more than 80 billion cubic meters of water…
Despite improving performance and lower prices, 30-year-old computer engineer Ahmed Esmat is not ready to buy an electric car. Nonetheless, Esmat believes low operating costs combined with better technology and extended driving range will soon allow electric vehicles to compete with petrol-powered vehicles. At present, however, he sees no affordable electric vehicles (EVs) available in Egypt. Bavarian Auto Group offers the BMW i3, i8 Coupe and i8 Roadster. Revolta Egypt, meanwhile, imports new and used electric cars from a range of manufacturers, but has no dedicated maintenance network for them. “Other than BMW, it’s a nonexistent market here for now,”…
*Name has been changed to protect the interviewer’s identity. It was a tedious week for 55-year-old Youssef Ezzeldin as he searched for a vacant hospital bed for his son’s tonsillectomy. Eager to offer his 7-year-old a relaxed experience, he reluctantly refused to settle for a public hospital in spite of free treatment. After countless calls and visits, Ezzeldin finally managed to book a surgery appointment through a relative who is a doctor at a private hospital in Heliopolis. State medical insurance covered two-thirds of the EGP 10,000 (about $600) cost. Things got worse when Ezzeldin realized his older son needed…
By Eid Said, Tax Consultant at Al Kamel Law Office, and a former First Undersecretary of State at the Egyptian Central Auditing Organization The Real Estate Tax was imposed in Egypt at the end of a ruling by Viceroy Mohamed Aly and limited to buildings in Cairo and Alexandria. That was until the issuance of Law No. 56 in 1954 that was eventually canceled by Tax on Buildings Law No. 196 for 2008, which introduced new provisions concerning assessing rent and imposing taxes on buildings. That encountered widespread criticism and forced the state to repeatedly delay implementation until Law No.…
“At the end of the day, it’s the government’s role to create the optimal entrepreneurial ecosystem that wins,” says Nihal El Chami, program coordinator at Falak Startups. It might be tempting to say that all it takes to create a successful startup is talent, an idea, and money. Good entrepreneurs know it involves much more than that: a suitable market, for instance, and a sustainable competitive advantage. They understand the finer details and fuse them to create a more insightful image of the macro environment. Within that macro environment is the real dominant player: Government. While venture capital firms support…
Burgeoning homegrown startup Swvl, a bus app founded two years ago in Cairo, raised $42 million in June on plans to expand further in Africa. The money came from international venture capital firms Vostok of Sweden, Dubai-based BECO Capital, China’s MSA and Endeavor Catalyst of New York. Swvl currently operates in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan. However, it reportedly intends to move its headquarters to Dubai. “Investors and entrepreneurs look at Egypt’s legal framework as complicated and thus choose to go down the route of moving abroad,” says Cairo attorney Loay El Shawarby. Egypt has ramped up entrepreneurial activity during…