When it comes to untapped investment potential in Africa, nothing compares to investing in clean and green energy generated from environmentally friendly sources. As UN Secretary-General Antόnio Guterres told the African Climate Summit in September: “Renewable energy could be the African miracle.” “A clean energy transition across the world’s developing nations will be crucial to keep alive the Paris Agreement goal [announced in 2015] of capping global warming ‘well below’ two degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, and 1.5C if possible,” said Guterres. Achieving that will require a lot of money. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in the next…
Author: Tamer Hafez
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming the underlying technology that will future-proof economies and companies’ long-term growth prospects. McKinsey Global Institute predicted in a July report that “artificial intelligence is set to add up to $4.4 trillion of value to the global economy annually.” Generative AI, which includes chatbots such as ChatGPT that can generate text in response to prompts, is currently the biggest driver of innovations. “Generative AI has the potential to change the anatomy of work, augmenting the capabilities of individual workers by automating some of their individual activities,” said the McKinsey report. Africa needs to expedite the…
A primary goal of most countries is to boost the wealth of their citizens. In communications with the U.N. Development Programme, the Egyptian government said in 2018 that its Egypt Vision 2030 strategy aims to increase GDP per capita from $10,250 in 2015 to $14,270 by 2030. According to World Bank metrics, that jump would improve Egypt’s classification from middle income, defined as GDP per capita between $1,136 and $13,845, to high income. Such a transition could prove challenging. “What typically follows [overcoming] poverty and deprivation … is a growth slowdown that, historically, made further progress toward high-income levels exceedingly…
Operating for over 60 years, Pfizer Egypt “has been evolving,” says Ahmed El Shazly, cluster lead ELI (Egypt, the Levant, Iraq) and country manager for Pfizer Egypt. “Now we are focusing on increasing our presence in the country and developing our approaches to better cater to the market’s needs.” Besides vaccines, Pfizer Egypt produces medicines for cancer, rare diseases, inflammation & immunology, and hospitals. It also engages with local government initiatives that support millions of patients. Pfizer Egypt plans to offer more of the latest and most advanced medicines that Pfizer Global has developed to support patients’ needs. “Amid the…
The panic to secure medical advice and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the integration of technology into healthcare. That development continues in 2023 and beyond. “Health care is entering a period of profound and accelerated change,” said the World Bank’s Digital-in-Health report in August. The document noted those changes go “beyond the notion of new technology or digital solution[s] to digitize an existing process … The change brewing in the health sector is existential in nature — person-centered health care, embracing new medical and health discoveries.” Those new healthcare solutions will require “the integration of previously separate disciplines.”…
One of the biggest problems facing Egyptians has always been the quality of healthcare services. Given the country’s low-middle income status (based on World Bank classifications) and a population nearing 110 million, the government has long struggled to ensure top-tier, affordable healthcare. A 2019 report by the Demographic and Health Survey Program (DHSP), published by USAID, said Egypt’s healthcare system “faces not only the burden of combating illnesses associated with poverty and lack of education, but it must also respond to emerging diseases and illnesses associated with modern, urban life.” To improve healthcare services and increase medical investment, the Ministry…
Egypt’s Suez Canal has been at the heart of trade between Africa, Europe, and Asia since it opened in 1869. Marwan El Sammak, Chairman and CEO of Ship & Crew – Egypt, says, “It is a brilliant way to connect [Asia and Europe] using an all-water solution.” However, that status is under increasing pressure as more countries, particularly in Asia, search for alternative routes. Further complicating the situation for the Suez Canal is that some routes are faster and cost less. They also can be less vulnerable to blockage and accommodate increasingly bigger vessels. “The blocking of the Suez Canal…
One of the hallmarks of the global economic system since World War II is that cross-border trade gets easier with time. “Global trade, in many ways, makes the world go round,” said a January note from the World Bank. “Think of any electronic good, clothing item or perhaps a chocolate bar; all everyday items which are in consumers’ hands and homes [are] because of global trade.” That openness created “better jobs, reduced poverty and increased economic opportunities,” said Mona Haddad, global director for trade, investment and competitiveness at the World Bank Group in January. International trade “has lifted more than…
With a career spanning over 30 years in banking and finance, Ahmed Issa, the former CEO of retail banking at CIB, Egypt’s largest listed bank, has a proven track record of being a “natural-born” builder. In 1998, he was one of the three founders of CIBC, later called CI Capital, which grew to be one of Egypt’s top brokerages. “That is when I realized my interest is in building new things,” Issa says. “The bank identified me as a potential leader [of new projects]. As such, they put me on track to either lead or be part of the leadership…
When the Federal Reserve (Fed) held overnight interbank rates steady at 5.25% in June, experts said it was a temporary pause. “The Fed ‘skipped’ a rate hike in June in favor of gathering more data,” said Preston Caldwell, a senior U.S. economist at Morningstar Research Services, in July. As expected, Fed Chair Jerome Powell on July 26 announced a 0.25% hike in overnight interbank interest rates to 5.5%, the highest since 2001. The possibility of another increase is uncertain. During the July announcement, Powell said, “I would say it’s certainly possible that we will raise funds again … if the…