For school-supply sellers, Egypt is a sustainable, highly lucrative market. According to a 2026 UNICEF report, Egypt had the highest secondary school completion rate in the MENA region in 2024 at 96%. Second-place Morocco achieved 84%, followed by Iraq at 83%. Additionally, Minister of Education Mohamed Abdel Latiff reported that classroom attendance was 87% of enrolled students as of June. Furthermore, Egypt’s education market is massive. CAPMAS said 32.9 million students were enrolled in the 2024/2025 academic year, equivalent to the ninth most populous country of MENA’s 20 nations. In 2026, two major factors are reshaping the school supplies market.…
Author: Tamer Hafez
Getting a job involves more than technical expertise, skills, and talent. In Erin McGoff’s 2026 book, “The Secret Language of Work: Hyper-Helpful Scripts for Every Situation,” she notes the importance of knowing work vernacular and using it to advance one’s career. The problem isn’t with ability, intelligence, motivation or drive, the book says. “It’s that one … knows the secret language of work, a way of communicating that is used by successful, high-performing people to get what they want.” The book highlights the lingo of this “secret language,” stressing it is essential at every stage in one’s career journey. Achievement…
To achieve “energy independence,” U.S. President Donald Trump’s priorities are clear: revitalizing fossil fuel investments. To date, he has removed “protected” status from onshore and offshore sites, allowing drilling companies to operate freely. Trump also allocated $800 million to update U.S. coal infrastructure and has been rolling back emissions caps. Furthermore, he pulled funding from green energy projects, even those already receiving federal support, and eliminated all clean-energy subsidies. The United States is not alone. According to the Production Gap 2025 report published by the Stockholm Environment Institute, an international research nonprofit that tackles environmental and sustainable development challenges, only…
To boost Egypt’s GDP growth in the coming years, the government has been touting greater private-sector investment. In June, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said private investment would account for 66% of Egypt’s economy by 2030, up from 60% in fiscal year 2025/2026. During this period, private investment’s contribution to GDP would rise from 77% to 82%. Powering that growth will require new energy ventures, with the greatest potential in sustainable energy projects. “Of the $3.4 trillion the world would spend on energy investments this year, $2.2 trillion will go to clean energy and just $1.2 trillion to fossil fuels,” according…
Since the end of 2019, one economic reality has stood out above almost everything else: Relying on imported fossil fuels to set macroeconomic policy and power economic activity is becoming a gamble. During COVID-19 lockdowns in August 2020, oil prices fell from $75 to $18 per barrel. By May 2022, they had spiked to nearly $116 as global economic growth roared back amid supply chain bottlenecks. By the start of 2026, oil prices had declined to $57.50 per barrel. However, the start of the war in Iran in February fueled a price hike to $110 in late March. By mid-July,…
In today’s world, allocating several hours, let alone days, to focus on a single difficult, critical task is increasingly challenging. Instant notifications from digital apps and social media fight a ferocious war for users’ attention. Meanwhile, bosses are demanding immediate responses to their communications. That reality promotes “shallow work” over “deep work.” In his book “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World,” Cal Newport defines the latter as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” “Shallow…
The harsh reality in low- and middle-income nations is that their top minds and talent often realize that working in wealthy nations can lead to higher living standards, better amenities and public infrastructure, and resources to build more fulfilling careers. Bringing them back or retaining them is difficult. “Reversing brain drain is more than a policy challenge,” noted a January 2025 paper from Beyond Emerging Europe, a digital platform promoting talent development. “It is a broader project of national renewal, requiring trust in domestic institutions and belief in a shared future.” For low- and middle-income nations, brain drain means more remittances. Remittances were Egypt’s largest…
Egyptian household and individual consumption as a percentage of nominal GDP has remained consistently high despite global and regional health (COVID-19) and geopolitical volatility in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, and Iran. Data curator CIEC Data estimated private consumption accounted for 94.1% of nominal GDP in 2025, up from 92.5% in 2024. That is the second-highest percentage on record, after August 2024, when consumption reached 97.1% of nominal GDP. Furthermore, consumption since the second half of 2024 has been higher than historical figures, which had not exceeded 87% since 2015, according to CIEC Data. This jump in consumption is due to…
The world has grown increasingly concerned about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over human jobs since ChatGPT launched in 2022. That is because it can understand natural human language (written and spoken), search the internet for data, generate narratives from queries, solve mathematical problems, and make forecasts. Those fears are partially founded. “While 92 million jobs might be eliminated by 2030, 170 million new roles will be created because of AI,” the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in February. Additionally, many existing professions will change. “Over the next two to three years, 50% to 55% of jobs … will be reshaped…
Remittances are a crucial stabilizing factor for the Egyptian economy, accounting for $41.5 billion last year alone. That is a massive amount, given that tourism contributed $18 billion, FDI $11 billion, and the Suez Canal $3.6 billion. Remittances are also growing faster than other revenue sources. According to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), the first nine months of fiscal year 2025/2026 saw transfers jump 32% over the previous year. These inflows are less affected by geopolitical and geoeconomic volatility than other sources. “They act as a shock absorber to Egypt’s economy,” noted Nour Adbellhamin, a reporter for state-owned Ahram…