Ahmad Hafez, 37, the front desk manager at a well-known Sharm el Sheikh resort, has noticed a new pattern in his booking system since the start of year: Room occupancy rises dramatically for a few days, only to drop significantly in subsequent weeks. “It seems that every time there is an event in the city, occupancy rises dramatically,” he says, “then returns to below-average afterward.” Hossam el Helw, chairman of Safa Tours, on the other hand, has seen high occupancy rates throughout the year, especially in Alexandria. “There is a definite lack of ‘decent’ hotel rooms for tourists from Europe,”…
Author: Tamer Hafez
It was an inevitable decision for Ahmed el Rayes, a 31-year-old owner of El Rayes Limousine Services, to change his four-car fleet to natural gas instead of petrol. “With petrol now at EGP 8 per liter, my costs would have been impossibly high. Also, my usual clientele can’t afford another price increase,” says el Rayes. “The majority of my clients ride from Sheikh Zayed to Maadi or New Cairo. Therefore, any increase to the fare will translate to a huge amount of money.” He is not alone in converting his cars to natural gas after years of using petrol. According…
Mohamed Mourad relocated to 6 October City to escape the hustle and bustle of downtown Cairo, but the move has not turned out as the 33-year-old accountant planned. “I used to take one bus to work,” he says. “Now I have to take three.” Even worse, Mourad spends more than half his commute time waiting for buses. “If I arrive at the bus station 10 minutes late, I have to wait for 30 to 40 minutes for another one. For the first time in my life, I need to buy a car.” But for Mourad and countless other Egyptians, car…
It was an inevitable decision for Ahmed el Rayes, a 31-year-old owner of El Rayes Limousine Services, to change his four-car fleet to natural gas instead of petrol. “With petrol now at EGP 8 per liter, my costs would have been impossibly high. Also, my usual clientele can’t afford another price increase,” says el Rayes. “The majority of my clients ride from Sheikh Zayed to Maadi or New Cairo. Therefore, any increase to the fare will translate to a huge amount of money.” He is not alone in converting his cars to natural gas after years of using petrol. According…
Because of his budget constraints, it didn’t take long for Kamal Tawfik, a 35-year-old real estate broker, to decide on a new car, “I needed a midsize sedan that didn’t cost more than EGP 350,000 ($21,084),” he says. “I wanted a car that looked good and could last for seven years.” Only three cars met his criteria. The Opel Astra, a German car (EGP 315,000); the South Korean Kia Cerato (EGP 335,000 to 425,000) and the locally assembled Nissan Sentra (EGP 287,000 to 305,000). “It was a no brainer,” says Tawfik. “I chose the German car. The Opel had the…
“Should I invest in my business or put the money in a savings account?” That was the question for 55-year-old Raafat Mahgoub, who owned a company that manufactured plastic bags. The answer was a no-brainer. “I saw interest rates climb from 9.25 percent at the start of 2016 to 11 percent a year later. My profit margins were about 10 percent,” he says. “Once I realized it was more profitable to put my money in the bank, I sold the business. Now I live off the returns.” Mahgoub does not regret his decision despite interest rates declining from an all-time…
Since getting married in 2017, Samy Abdallah, a 36-year-old bank teller, hunted for a new home. “Prices seemed to spike overnight in line with pound’s depreciation,” he says. Abdallah rents a 120-square-meter (1,291-square-foot) flat in Manial that eats up more than half his salary. “I worry we will never find an affordable home,” he says, reflecting a widespread sentiment. “Before the devaluation, I never had a buyer and seller I couldn’t match,” says Mahmoud Samir, a Maadi real estate broker with 20 years of experience. “Now, it is common.” Hoping to expand the supply of properties, the Ministry of Housing…
A white paper by Fitch Group noted that Egyptian fintechs could succeed in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon. What challenges and opportunities could they face? Not so long ago, a mobile phone was just that: a device that made its users reachable anytime, anywhere. Today, it is more of a personal assistant that helps with everything from paying bills to entertainment. MENA governments, however, have been talking about making residents use smartphones to pay for everything from public services to impulse purchases. So far, the results have been underwhelming. “In our region, what I have noticed so far is that…
With imports accounting for 70 percent of Egypt’s trade, the country relies on dollars. Those greenbacks are increasingly being borrowed from international markets because foreign direct investment declined by 23.5 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2018/2019 compared to the previous year. Based on Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) data, dollar-denominated debt represented 14.4 percent of GDP in 2015; the figure reached 37 percent by 2018. Accordingly, news reports of a global shortage of American currency should worry Egypt’s private sector, government and the CBE. A Reuters story published in mid-November, reported that there is only $3.2 trillion in circulation worldwide. That compares to…
Over the decades, venture capitalists and other investors have eyed, with great interest, Americans who start businesses in their parents’ garages. They are looking for the next big idea—the next Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or Apple, to name a few. Currently, the United States ranks as the third friendliest country for entrepreneurs, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 published by the World Economic Forum. “Glaring American weaknesses, such as fraying infrastructure and fractured politics, are outweighed in the WEF analysis by the country’s strengths in areas like business sophistication and technological readiness,” reported the Economist in September 2017. “And aside from market size, the…